


Family, Not Friends

by yinyangprophecy



Category: Yu-Gi-Oh! 5D's
Genre: Alternate Universe - Gender Changes, Cross-Posted on FanFiction.Net, F/M, Genderqueer Character
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-07-25
Updated: 2020-06-18
Packaged: 2020-07-19 20:51:32
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 18
Words: 29,656
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/19980331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/yinyangprophecy/pseuds/yinyangprophecy
Summary: Years ago, the Enforcers were torn apart by tragedy, leaving each to fend for themselves. It was hardest for Yusei, who lost the small family that had been protecting the secrets that were so closely guarded by her. Now she has to navigate the world dressed as a man, and pray that her journey to get back her card, Stardust Dragon, doesn't put her safety in jeopardy.





	1. A New Type of Duel

**Author's Note:**

> This is a story from my alternate account on FanFiction, but I wanted to post it here.

_Blinding lights flashed like a hyperactive kaleidoscope as the earth shook. A capsule slid shut around me as a figure stood over me, then I was ripped away at high speeds. As I flew away, an explosion destroyed my ability to sleep, bringing me back to the waking world._

My muscles cried out as I sat up, rubbing the sleep from my eyes. The stale air of the subway felt as oppressive as that tube had. Swinging my legs to the side of my makeshift mattress, I put on my boots. Walking quietly as possible, I gathered my coat and gloves on my way out of the tent. The others were still asleep, but I wasn't planning on waking them up.

Going on autopilot, I went around Satellite, searching for a chip that would hopefully work longer. There was no doubt that I was proud of my newest creation, seeing as it was far superior to my previous attempt, but none of that would matter if I couldn't get a chip that would work adequately.

However, I wasn't a fool. Satellite was not a place where anything of quality could be found besides duelists. I had read of people who referred to their home as 'practically a dump' but that couldn't compete with actually living in a dump and barely scraping by with what you could salvage. Hardly anything worked by the time it got to our 'wonderful' little island.

After a fruitless hour of searching, I returned to our little hideaway. The other four were getting breakfast ready, which was the last of our food from the last supply run. Partially cooked beans were being put on stale bread as I joined them.

Nervin passed me my plate, "What were you up to this morning?"

"Seeing if there is any other chips in this dump. The only ones that work are the ones in Security runners, and I don't particularly feel like going to the Facility."

Tank let out a laugh as large as his stomach, "I don't blame ya Yues! Any luck?"

Shaking my head I picked at my food, "None. I'm getting real tired of being so close yet so far away."

All of them cleaned up their things, heading off to their jobs at the sorting factory. Rally ran off to wherever she goes when the others were gone, leaving me alone with my half-eaten meal. Despite my lack of appetite, I shoved it in my mouth so I could get back to work on my precious project.

Some of the runner magazines said that naming a runner helped it work better, so I had quietly started calling mine Justice. Mostly because that is what her purpose was, to help me get even with the man who nearly took everything of worth from me. All that I had left was my friends and what few things I had well hidden away.

One more time, I checked all of the parts, to ensure that they were in the best possible condition for what I was about to do.

I pushed my runner to the ground of the subway and climbed on, putting my helmet on. _No use loitering around, better just to start and go as long as possible._ I revved my engine and shot down the tunnel, hoping that maybe this time the engine will last long enough to go a full lap around the tunnels.

* * *

By pure luck, I managed to slide to a gentle stop as my engine blew, thankfully not doing too much damage. I sighed, got off and checked the damage. _At this rate, I'll never get a chance to get even with that traitor_. I pushed my runner back to the hideout. With the engine out, it was certainly a workout. One that I was too well acquainted with by this point.

As I arrived back at the hideout, I heard a voice I hoped to never hear again, Jack Freaking Atlas, so called King of Dueling. He was bragging about something, that was for sure. But I didn't have time to worry about his hubris. I rolled up next to the tent and revved the engine to make sure that it wasn't too bad to repair, and it purred-well, more like choked out a rattle.

My friends turned around and turned off the interview. Tank blushed, "Sorry about that Yusei, but the internet only worked in the main tent. Trust us, we tried every other place we could think of, but just couldn't get it to work."

Nervin spoke up, "He still has his unbeaten streak, unfortunately."

The tallest, Blitz, spoke up, "Shuddup, she don't wanna know how good Jack is doing."

"Right, sorry."

I placed my helmet on a nearby table, "You aren't the one who owes me an apology."

All of them nodded as Blitz spoke again, "Right, Jack owes you for what he did back then."

Nervin nodded at the runner, "So how is Justice doing today?"

Blitz glared at him, "What does it look like?"

Tank sighed, "Oh, right. I wonder what happened to your old one. It used to look so good on the TV. Haven't seen it in a while though."

I surprised to see Blitz shoved his head down, "Tank, shut up!"

He pushed Blitz' hand off, "It's true though! If Jack hadn't stolen her runner, Yusei would be giving that interview right now. But because he stole Hope, he gets the fame, and we are still stuck here."

Even without looking, I could tell that the others were glaring at Tank for his comments, but I was trying to get the stupid chip working again.

"Yusei! Yusei! Are you down here?"

Blitz greeted her, "Hey Rally, we're all here!"

Tank smiled, "What's up?"

Rally ran over to me, "Look what I found!"

She held out her hand, a chip in her palm. Blitz grabbed her arm, "It's never been used, you better not have stolen it!"

Jerking away, she looked up at him, "I promised you all that I stopped! Plus, it was just in a pile of garbage!"

Everyone took a step back, and Blitz raised his voice, "Who knows how it ended up there?"

Tank nodded, "If someone else stole it and dropped it, you picking it up could be considered assisting them."

Nervin pointed at her face, "If they think we helped you steal that, we might all get marked."

Despite all of the possible ways that it could be a trap, I didn't care as I stood up and walked over, "Rally, can I see that?"

She nodded, and I looked at it, "I'm going to use it."

The others protested. Blitz argued, "You can't keep it."

Nervin agreed, "You've got to make her take it back!"

I pulled out my old chip and put in the newer one. I checked the levels, which had seriously improved with just the one piece. Then I revved the engine, and it's roar filled up the subway.

Just then a light came down through the gap in the subway's ceiling, along with a Security Officer's voice, "You are in possession of stolen property. Turn yourself in."

Blitz raised his hand, "What did you do?"

She cowered, "I promise you, I didn't steal anything!"

Blocking his hand, I rolled my eyes, "I'm the one who wanted to keep it. Don't worry about what already happened."

"What about the marker? We can't escape!"

I walked over to the computer, and made it send out a signal to disrupt the signal of her marker. Once that was done, I took my helmet from Rally, and put it on, "That'll only work for a couple minutes. Get hidden, and I'll give them something to remember."

My runner shot out of the tunnels and raced past the Securities. They immediately followed me, but I was too excited to care, because I was actually going fast, and it wasn't struggling. I pulled into an abandoned parking lot, and they stopped right next to me. The cop on the runner took off his helmet, and looked at me, "Looks like you are a distraction, seeing as you don't have a mark. Where'd you get the runner?"

I looked him in the eye, "If you beat me in a duel, I might consider telling you."

The officer laughed, "How could you duel me? Satellites aren't allowed to own a deck!"

Resisting a smile, I pulled mine out, "I seem to have missed that memo."

He didn't hold back his smile, "You are on punk."

Another man protested, "You can't seriously be considering it Trudge."

This officer, Trudge, didn't even look at him, "Go, this is my decision."

"But…"

Trudge sent him a dark look, "When was the last time I lost to a Satellite?"

The other one went back to the car, and the others all left. He looked at me, "All right, I win, you hand yourself over and tell me where you got the runner. You win, I say that you weren't the ones that were guilty."

I nodded, "That works for me."

We both lined up our runners, then activated Speed World. My first Turbo Duel! I hope I don't mess this up on a massive scale.

Trudge took the first turn, "I summon Assault Dog in attack mode and place one card face down."

**_Assault Dog-1200_ **

Drawing a card, I quickly plotted out an idea, "I summon Speed Warrior in attack mode!"

**_Speed Warrior-900_ **

He laughed, "You can't do math can you?"

Speeding up, I did my best to keep a poker face as my Warrior's attack points doubled. Trudge's eyes went wide, and he spluttered, "What just happened?"

**_Speed Warrior-1800_ **

A smile emerged on my face, "On the first turn that Speed Warrior is out, his attack points are doubled. Now attack!"

My ninja decided that he was going to attack in a handstand rather than one of his other ways, destroying the dog in a hilarious manner.

**_Life Points Trudge=3400_ **

To my surprise, he chuckled, "My dog's special effect comes into action. If one is destroyed, I can summon a new one from my deck."

**_Assault Dog-1200_ **

Whoops, I should have looked out for something like that.

**_Speed Warrior-900_ **

I gritted my teeth, "I set one card face down and end my turn."

He laughed, "I release Assault Dog in order to advance summon Handcuff Dragon!"

**_Handcuff Dragon-1800_ **

"Now attack that Speed Warrior!"

Quickly, I responded with, "I activate my trap, Scrap-Iron Scarecrow!"

His trap raised as well, "Nice try but I activate my Wire-Tap trap card, which negates your card and sends it back to the deck, continue the attack Handcuff Dragon!"

**_Life Points Yusei=3100_ **

_This guy is starting to piss me off._

As if his victory was amazing, he started to laugh even more, He laughed again, "No matter how many you assemble, your cards are and will always be trash! Just like you!"

I took a deep breath, _Listen Yusei, keep your cool. Ignore the laughing, and kick this guy's butt into the next century. Losing your temper is not an option._

My next draw wasn't amazing, so I decided to go on the defensive, "I set Sonic Chick in defense mode set two cards, and end my turn."

**_Sonic Chick-300_ **

He laughed, seriously, what is it with this guy and laughing, and sent three cards to the graveyard. He held his hand up, "I summon Montage Dragon! It's attack points are determined by the level of the monsters I sent to the graveyard times 300!"

**_Montage Dragon-3000_ **

If glares could kill, he would probably have died at this point, _This isn't going to be pretty._

"Handcuff Dragon attacks Sonic Chick! Then, Montage Dragon attacks you directly!"

**_Life Points Yusei=100_ **

"My turn!"

Once again, my cards had my back, Thank you so much! Now we can win!

"I summon Junk Synchron in attack mode."

**_Junk Synchron-1300_ **

"You have a Tuner monster? How?"

Acting as if he did not talk at all, I continued, "Next I activate the spell card, Graceful Revival, which lets me summon a level 2 or below monster from my graveyard. And I chose Speed Warrior!"

**_Speed Warrior-900_ **

"Now I am going to show you what we Satellites like to do, use two things that you city folk call garbage and make them into something amazing. I use Junk Synchron to tune Speed Warrior, and Synchro-summon Junk Warrior!"

**_Junk Warrior-2300_ **

He tried to laugh off Junk Warrior's attack points, "Still not stronger than my Montage Dragon!"

Trying to achieve inner peace, I ignored him yet again, "I activate my speed spell, Vision Wind! This allows me to summon a level 2 or below monster from my graveyard, and add that monster's attack points to another monster on the field."

**_Speed Warrior-900_ **

**_Junk Warrior-3200_ **

"Junk Warrior, attack that Handcuff Dragon!"

**_Life Points Trudge=2000_ **

Trudge smirked like he won the lottery, "You should have gone for Montage Dragon, because Handcuff Dragon's special ability. It can come back from the graveyard and equip itself to the monster that defeated it. It takes away the same amount of points that it had."

**_Junk Warrior-1400_ **

Rolling my eyes openly, I sighed, "I'm not a fool. I activate Equip Shot. It changes a equip spell from one of my monsters to one of yours, and then the two must attack each other."

**_Junk Warrior-3200_ **

**_Montage Dragon-1200_ **

Trudge's face paled as the two battled.

**_Life Points Trudge=0 Defeat!_ **

His runner pulled to a stop, and I stopped next to him, "Everything and everyone has potential. Anyone who says otherwise is doesn't deserve to call themselves duelists."

Satisfied that I won on both the moral and duel basis, I drove to the only place where I could get a good view of the city, _Guess who's coming for their card, Jack._


	2. Bugged Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Someone tries to rough up Yusei's friends, and she doesn't put up with it.

The others were gone when I got back, which meant that they thankfully listened to me. Since I had nothing better to do, I plugged in my runner to the computer again to see what the performance level was like now. As I typed away, a voice hollered out, "So? How'd it run, Yusei?"

A smile spread over my face as I looked at the others, "It ran like a dream. I even dueled a member of Security for our freedom. He won't bother any of you again. As part of the duel we agreed that if I won he would say we aren't responsible. I think I angered him by beating him in a couple rounds."

Blitz sighed, "Either you befriend people, or you make a new enemy. I'm surprised that you even leave the hideout anymore."

I chuckled, "Someone needs to take care of you guys. Plus a lot of wise people said that you aren't living if you haven't made an enemy."

Nervin sighed, "True, but Satellite isn't safe for a female duelist. If someone figured out that you weren't a guy, you'd be in so much danger. Don't risk your safety for ours."

I sighed, "I've been taking care of myself for quite some time now. But I will keep that in mind."

_ What they said is right. It's the reason I can't work that the factory with them, and they know it. But that works to my advantage, because I have all day to work on my runner, and that is finally paying off. _

The last time I dueled Jack, I didn't think that trap cards were at all useful, but I learned my lesson, adding spell and trap cards to my deck. As much as it disgusted me, Jack was right when he said that I needed them. It made my deck so much stronger. I didn't hate him enough to dismiss his advice, and Martha always said that if someone was stronger than you, figure out why and do the same thing.

I shot past Rally, then turned around and came to a stop next to her. She beamed at me, "That was your best time yet! Will it be enough to make it through the tunnels?"

Shrugging, I took off my helmet, "It better be."

We went back to the tent and I worked on the runner while we waited for the guys. To our surprised, they came back from work with nothing except bruises. Rally did her best to patch them up as I asked, "What exactly happened?"

Tank looked at the ground, "I wasn't looking where I was going, and I tripped over some jerk's foot. He just wanted an excuse to fight with someone."

Nervin sighed, "He's from the city. It's almost funny, they give us their worst, and we once managed to give them our worst, and they worship him."

I laughed, "Well, their so called king is about to get dethroned. Justice is finally fast enough to get through the tunnels."

The guys all perked up, "Really?"

Nodding, I got rid of the oil on my hands, "Yeah, we timed a run today, and it only took two minutes. Considering the real run is open for five minutes, I should make it with no trouble."

Rally smiled, "You should have seen it, that new chip makes Justice go so fast I could barely see it as it shot past. It was so cool!"

Just then we heard someone laugh. Tank groaned, "Not you again!"

Glancing over, I saw a trio of guys walking up to us. The leader spoke, "Because of you tripping over my foot, we all got our pay docked. So we are going to take some stuff from you to make up for the difference."

One of his cronies laughed, "Look at that runner, boss."

The third guy laughed as the boss looked at Justice, "A runner that nice shouldn't belong to trash like you. I think that if you give me that, I'll call it all even."

All three of the guys stood between the strangers and Justice, while I stood up to my full height (which wasn't much to be honest), "Good luck getting her away from us."

He noticed me for the first time, "And you are?"

"The owner and creator of this runner. If you want to get her, you'll need to duel me for her."

"Why thank you!"

Putting away my turbo deck, I pulled out the nearly identical foot deck. One of his cronies put on his disk for him, a sure sign of arrogance, while I detached my disk from my runner.

Both of us walked away from the tent, and got in position as our friends looked on.

He started out our duel, "I summon Chainsaw Insect!"

**_Chainsaw Insect-2400_ **

"And then I set the spell, Revenge of the Ant-Lion, which deals 800 points of damage to you when one of your monsters is destroyed."

I looked at my cards, "I summon Shield Warrior in defense mode and set one card face down."

**_Shield Warrior-1600_ **

He laughed, and I started hating opponents who laugh more than once in an hour. He drew a card, "I summon Pinch Hopper, but don't get too close to him, because I send one card to the graveyard to activate a spell."

**_Pinch Hopper-1000_ **

"I used my spell Insect Costume in order to destroy my Pinch Hopper."

I laughed, "You do realize that due to your spell, you take 800 points of damage?"

He stared at me in shock as his life points dropped.

**_Life Points Lenny=3200_ **

He shook it off, "I did that on purpose to summon a more powerful monster. Since Pinch Hopper was sent to the graveyard, I can bring out Metal Armored Bug!"

**_Metal Armored Bug-2800_ **

"Then I remove two monsters from my graveyard and summon another monster, Doom Dozer!"

**_Doom Dozer-2800_ **

I sighed,  _ Power decks are all the same. Trying to force you into submission _ . He sent his Chainsaw Insect at me, "I activate my trap, Scrap-Iron Scarecrow! It negates one attack per turn."

He glared at me, "Well then I guess that I'll just have to destroy your monster with my Metal Armored Bug!"

Shield Warrior was destroyed and the trap activated, taking away 800 life points.

**_Life Points Yusei=3200_ **

He dramatically gestured to me, "Doom Dozer, shock him into submission!"

**_Life Points Yusei=400_ **

I stayed in my defensive position, trying to not laugh at his antics, and also to not curse him out. Once I calmed down, I drew my next card, and felt relief as I saw that I now had everything I needed, "I summon Speed Warrior!"

**_Speed Warrior-900_ **

"Next I activate the spell Double Summon, which allows me to normal summon one more time this turn. And the monster I summon is Junk Synchron!"

**_Junk Synchron-1600_ **

"And now I tune my two monsters to each other to create Junk Warrior!"

**_Junk Warrior-2300_ **

"And now I use the spell Fighting Spirit, which give my Junk Warrior 300 attack points for every monster on your field."

**_Junk Warrior-3200_ **

"Now you can attack Chainsaw Insect."

**_Life Points Lenny=2400_ **

"I activate Domino Effect, which destroys the same amount of monsters as cards I send to the graveyard. I'm sending Fighting Spirit and Scrap-Iron Scarecrow, which destroys your remaining monsters. And then comes the effect of your spell, which sends your life points downhill."

**_Life Points Lenny=0 Defeat!_ **

I walked over to him, "Just so you know, you become a better duelist if you learn to rely on all of your cards together than on their individual strength. Trust in your deck and you will never lose."

He nodded, and the three of them left, much to my delight. I turned back to my friends, "Let's get started on our last minute preparations!"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FYI, Yusei is assigned female at birth, so she uses female pronouns among people who know her well. For her own safety, she presents as a male, and uses those pronouns around everyone else. But she doesn't really care which one people use.


	3. Charging the Shute

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yusei heads to New Domino City, and deals with the cop who enjoys laughing more than should be healthy.

My nerves were trying to make a break for it as I triple checked to make sure that I was packed. The compartment under my seat had my spare set of clothes, my second deck, tools, and a small box.

Rally watched as I checked my things, “Do you ever go places without your box?”

“No. Just like you cling to the few cards your parents left for you, I keep this box with me. If it weren’t for this, I would know nothing about my birth family.”

She helped me roll my runner down to the track level of the subway, then I doubled back to make sure that Nervin knew how to work the program on my laptop.

“We got this Yues. Go kick Jack’s trash.”

I smirked as I climbed back on my runner, “Of course I will.”

Rally jumped down, "I have something to give you before you leave."

She handed me a card,  _ Turbo Booster _ . I stared at it in surprise, "This is your favorite card. Why give it to me?"

"For good luck!"

I smiled at her, "Thank you. And guys?"

They looked at me, "Keep her safe, okay? I'll get back as soon as I can, but it might be a month from now, when the pipe opens next."

“Sure thing!”

"Of course we will Yuse."

"We always stick together."

Taking a deep breath, I smiled and nodded, "Well, here I go!"

I put on my helmet and shot off down the tunnels. This was going to be quite the trip, even if I don't' get caught. But if I do...let's just say I wouldn't mind the break in this extremely long ride.

Right on time, I shot out of the tunnels, and hurried to the waste plant. Just like in all of the test runs, I still had about ten minutes before the hatch would close.

Pain shot up my leg as something crashed into my side. I sped up and glanced back,  _ Oh, come on! Where did that copper come from? _

It was the cop that laughed way too much last time we dueled. I shook my head and hit the throttle as much as I could. I heard him prattling about something, but I didn't have time to care. I felt a couple bumps as I ran over the barricade, and then I lept over the gate.  _ Come on, Justice! You can do this! _

The landing was rough, but I managed to keep going. Behind me I could hear the clank of the gates opening, and the hum of a chasing runner.

Once again the man laughed, “Guess what, scum? We just got a new mechanic in our runners! I can now force you to duel me whether or not you like it!”

"Speed World set, Autopilot, standby."

Biting back a wave of nerves, I spit out the words, "Fine. Let's do this."

_ Not the kind of excitement I was hoping for, but I can probably handle this. _

Before I got a chance to do anything, he practically screamed, "I get the first turn! I summon Gate Blocker in defense mode and place one card facedown."

**_Gate Blocker-2000_ **

_ Okaay... That’s not a monster I’ve seen before. _

"My turn!" I stared at my (lack of) speed counters in shock, "What on Earth?"

He snorted with laughter ( _what is it with this guy and laughing?_ ), "Gate Blocker is a card only in the decks of Security officers. It makes it so your opponent can't gain speed or speed counters as long as it is on the field."

I bit back an insult and summoned Speed Warrior by slapping down his card.

**_Speed Warrior-900_ **

Once again, he did his thing, "So? Even if it doubles it points, it's still not enough to destroy Gate Blocker."

**_Speed Warrior-1800_ **

Trying, and failing, to control my temper, I spoke again, "I summon Turbo Booster in attack mode."

**_Turbo Booster-0_ **

For once he didn’t laugh, "What use is that monster? It has no attack points!"

Why is it so hard to not slap someone, "I release Turbo Booster in order to use its special ability. I can destroy your monster, regardless of points, and mine isn't destroyed."

"But you'll still take damage!"

I shrugged, "So? Go Speed Warrior!"

**_Life Points Yusei=3800_ **

The second the stupid monster was gone, I slammed my foot on the accelerator. Yet the bastard kept talking, "I activate my trap, Broken Blocker. If a monster with more defense than attack points is destroyed, I can summon two of them in defense mode."

**_Gate Blocker-2000_ **

**_Gate Blocker-2000_ **

Oh, come on! I sighed, "I set two cards facedown, and end my turn."

**_Speed Warrior-900_ **

Without turning around, I could hear the smile in his sentence, "I summon Gonogo in attack mode!"

**_Gonogo-1350_ **

"Now attack that Speed Warrior!"

**_Life Points Yusei=3350_ **

It’s impressive that a man I just met has tied with my foster brother for my “Worst Person in the World” award. I’d almost rather be dealing with Jack right now. Scratch that, I WOULD rather be dealing with Jack than this man.

"My turn! I summon Junk Synchron, and activate Graceful Revival to summon Speed Warrior from the graveyard."

**_Junk Synchron-700_ **

**_Speed Warrior-900_ **

"Now you can probably guess what is coming next, I synchro summon Junk Warrior!"

**_Junk Warrior-2300_ **

He looked positively bored, but I pushed on, "Now attack that Gonogo!"

**_Life Points Trudge=3050_ **

Yet another cackle hit my tired ears, "My turn, I summon Jutte Fighter in attack mode."

**_Jutte Fighter-700_ **

My eyes nearly popped out of their sockets as I rolled them, "Looks like it's your turn to synchro summon."

"Sure is, and I synchro summon Goyo Guardian!"

_**Goyo Guardian-2800** _

To my shock, apparently he could get louder, "Now get Junk Warrior!"

_**Life Points Yusei=2850** _

"Goyo Guardian's special ability allows him to take the monster he destroys, and put it in defensive mode on my side of the field."

_**Junk Warrior-1300** _

"Next I activate a speed spell, Sonic Buster!"

_Oh yeah, I've been waiting for that._ I quietly activated Slip Stream, and watched him act so pleased about the fact that I was going to be taking 1400 points of damage.

_**Life Points Yusei=1450** _

"And now...I activate another Sonic Buster."

_You are just getting more and more annoying._

_**Life Points Yusei=50** _

Despite the time crunch, I took a quick second to calm myself down, "My turn, and I summon Nitro Synchron."

_**Nitro Synchron-300** _

Scanning my set up, I smiled, "Then I activate Dash Pilfer."

"You can't do that you don't have…"

My smile grew as he stopped talking, "Noticed something on my field? When you used your first Sonic Buster I activated this little spell here which made my speed counters the same as yours. Now, Dash Pilfer allows me to take a monster on your side of the field in defense mode, and bring it to my side, so long as I have four or more speed counters, which I now do. I chose Junk Warrior."

_**Junk Warrior-1300** _

"Now I synchro summon Nitro Warrior."

**_Nitro Warrior-2800_ **

"And, if, on the turn he is summoned, a speed spell was used, he gains 1000 attack points. Now take out that Goyo Guardian!"

_**Nitro Warrior-3800** _

_**Life Points Trudge=1050** _

It was almost funny to me how our expressions had switched. Now he was the one who was upset, while I was the one enjoying the duel, "Then his special effect comes into play, which turns one of your monsters in defense mode into attack mode and can attack it. It may be without the 1000 extra points, but it's more than enough for now."

_**Life Points Trudge=0 Defeat!** _

Just as I shot free, the hatch opened, dumping things that were enormous into the tunnel. Shoot, shoot, come on, Justice, come on! 

I did my best to maneuver around, and went over the top of the tunnel. I skidded when I hit the bottom and started sliding towards the door. This works, just make it to the side tunnel.

Metal clanged through the air as the door slammed shut, thankfully with me on the side I wanted to be on, even if it was a little difficult regaining control. It took a minute for me to come to a safe stop, and I took a quick break trying to calm down my heart-rate.

Taking one more deep breath, I stretched,  _ Time to catch up with Jack. _

I gunned my runner and went through the tunnels at a much more leisurely pace.


	4. Dragons Squared

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yusei finally gets to talk to Jack, and it goes absolutely perfectly.

There was no doubt when I entered the city, because the smell of the air changed dramatically. Breathing became easier, and the only word I had for this new smell was...clean.

This new smell became more noticeable as I exited the tunnel, yet my attention was caught by a shadow on the ground that looked very familiar. Mischief boiled up inside of me, and I pulled to a stop, pretending to smell the air, "Ugh, it smells worse over here than it ever did back home. I wonder if they ever take out their trash?"

My eyes drifted up to see the man I once called my brother, standing on an overpass, "Oh. There it is. No wonder I can smell it so well."

Jack looked a little surprised, "Really, Yusei? Are you seriously calling me trash?"

"If the shoe fits...Any way, I want Stardust back."

He crossed his arms, "First you insult me, then you demand something from me. Don't you want to catch up on old times first?"

I clenched my fist, "Look, I have wondered why you betrayed us, but I just want Stardust back."

With an overdramatic flick of his wrist, he held out my card, "It's still in one piece, don't you trust me?"

"Not after my first runner mysteriously was replaced by that eyesore."

One of his way-too-thin eyebrows went up, "What eyesore?"

"Your high speed ferris wheel. Now just give me my card."

He put it in his deck, "Not after you insulted my Wheel of Fortune. You'll have to duel me for it."

I rolled my eyes and muttered, "And people say that girls get upset over nothing. Well...I am doing all of this for a card. Maybe it's Satellites."

* * *

After a long ride (which felt extremely long for me after my other drive), we ended up inside of the infamous Kaiba Dome, where (according to Tank) Jack did all of his professional duels, "Welcome to my office, Yusei. If you think that it's impressive right now, then you should see it when it's full of adoring fans cheering my name."

"Hard pass on that. But thanks for the offer."

His head snapped in my direction, "Maybe a duel will cheer you up. Shall we get started?"

Stretching, I let my back pop, "Remember, if I win, I get Stardust. If you win, I go back home and never challenge you for it again."

Apparently two years of hearing his voice only on TV made me hate his voice, or else I just forgot how annoying it was, because I despised listening to him, "Those sound like perfect outcomes."

We put our runners next to each other, and waited as a hologram counted down. The second it turned green, the smell of burning rubber and roar of our engines filled the air.

I decided that I was going first, "My turn, and I summon my Quillbolt Hedgehog in defense mode."

_**Quillbolt Hedgehog-800** _

Jack chortled, "That little thing? Well he can say hello to my Mad Archfiend!"

_**Mad Archfiend-1800** _

"And due to his special ability, when he attacks a monster in defense mode, he inflicts piercing damage. Let 'er have it!"

**_Life Points Yusei=3000_ **

As if I didn't see that coming a mile away, idiot. Checking my hand, I flicked down a card, "I summon Junk Synchron in attack mode."

**_Junk Synchron-1600_ **

"And, in case you forgot, my Junk Synchron can bring back a level 1 or 2 monster from my graveyard. So say hello again to my Quillbolt Hedgehog. But he's not going to stay around long, because now Junk Synchron tunes my Quillbolt in order to summon my Junk Warrior."

**_Junk Warrior-2300_ **

Jack let out an overdramatic sigh as I continued, "Now my Junk Warrior attacks your Mad Archfiend."

**_Life Points Jack=3500_ **

"So far, Yusei, you are being extremely predictable, I summon Twin Shield Defender in defense mode, and set one card facedown on my field."

**_Twin Shield Defender-1600_ **

"What's that about being predictable, Jack Atlas?"

Glancing at his card, I pondered my next move, _Clearly that is a trap, but it's better to reveal it than stay away from it._ I drew, and once again I had the right card, "I summon Speed Warrior. And thanks to Junk Warrior's special ability, Speed Warrior's attack points are added to Junk Warrior's."

_**Speed Warrior-900** _

_**Junk Warrior-3200** _

"Then the turn that Speed Warrior is summoned, it's attack point double, but don't worry, this power boost doesn't also go to Junk Warrior."

**_Speed Warrior-1800_ **

_How have I been able to say this much without the king of ego speaking? Guess we'll see how long he lets me talk_ , "Now Speed Warrior, attack Twin Shield Defender."

I cringed when I saw the purple cloud where his monster had been, _I totally forgot about his special ability._

Jack chuckled, "Twin Shield Defender's special ability activates. The strongest monster on your field loses the same amount of attack points as my monster."

**_Junk Warrior-1600_ **

Doing my best to hide my embarrassment, I kept talking, "So? He can still attack you directly."

**_Life Points Jack=1900_ **

The facedown flipped up as he started to talk, "I activate my trap, Spacegate. I gain a gate token for each of the times you attacked me. So two tokens."

I set one card face down, "I end my turn and my monsters' attack points return to normal."

**_Junk Warrior-3200_ **

**_Speed Warrior-900_ **

His voice was definitely grating on my nerves, as he spoke in his 'superior' voice, "Since I have four or more speed tokens I can activate the speed spell Speed Fusion, so I send Medium Piece Golem and Big Piece Golem to the graveyard to summon Multiple Piece Golem."

**_Multiple Piece Golem-2600_ **

"Now would you kindly destroy her Speed Warrior?"

My monster shattered, but I flipped up my facedown card, "I activate my facedown, Defense Draw. I take no damage this turn, and I do get to draw a card."

He laughed, "But your Junk Warrior does lose his extra points. And after I attack with my Multiple Piece Golem, I can send it to the graveyard and bring out the monsters used to summon it."

**_Junk Warrior-2300_ **

**_Big Piece Golem-2100_ **

**_Medium Piece Golem-1600_ **

"Then I use Medium Piece Golem's special ability to bring out Small Piece Golem."

_**Small Piece Golem-1100** _

"And since I haven't normal summoned yet, I summon Dark Resonator."

**_Dark Resonator-1300_ **

_Oh, boy. Here comes the powerhouse._

"I tune Big Piece Golem with Dark Resonator, in order to summon the monster of my soul, Red Dragon Archfiend!"

**_Red Dragon Archfiend-3000_ **

The smile he sent me caused chills to fly up my spine at cosmic speeds, "But why stop there?"

_What? Oh, he couldn't possibly be thinking to…_

"I send Spacegate to the graveyard, in order to summon a monster with a level equal to or less than the amount of Gate tokens I have. So I summon level one Sinister Sprocket."

_**Sinister Sprocket-600** _

"Next, I tune both of my remaining Golems with my Sprocket to summon Stardust Dragon!"

**_Stardust Dragon-2500_ **

_He actually did it. This isn't going to be easy._

I looked at my Stardust (my card!) in concern. I knew everything about that card. But that was an advantage for me.

"I summon Shield Warrior in defense mode."

**_Shield Warrior-1800_ **

"Then I put Junk Warrior in defense mode and place one card facedown."

**_Junk Warrior-1300_ **

However, I was at a small disadvantage, he never used his dragon back in the Satellite, saying that he didn't like to use extreme force when unnecessary. I knew hardly anything about it, mostly because I couldn't stand watching his duels on the computer.

"I think I'll have my Red Dragon Archfiend attack your Shield Warrior. And his special ability makes it so he can destroy all monsters in defense mode. Say goodbye to your defense!"

_Oh man!_ Guilt came over me as my monsters were destroyed, and Jack laughed, "Stardust, attack her directly!"

**_Life Points Yusei=500_ **

Nothing hurt more than having your own card, your most prized car, being used against you.

Glancing at my hand, I realised that I had a pretty good plan in place, "I put Sonic Chick in defense mode on my field, and place a facedown."

**_Sonic Chick-300_ **

"Red Dragon Archfiend, attack that Sonic Chick!"

A bubble appeared around Sonic Chick, "You can't do that, Jack. Sonic Chick can't be destroyed by a monster with more than 1900 attack points."

"But my dragon's special ability will destroy it anyway."

I smiled, "Not quite, I activate my trap Remote Revenge. If one of my monsters is going to be destroyed by another's special ability, all monsters in attack mode on your field will be destroyed."

He cackled with a vengeance that would make a witch proud, "I activate Stardust Dragon's special ability, which releases him in order to negate the effect of a card that would destroy every monster on my field."

A smirk spread over my face, _Perfect._

Jack had no idea what he was doing as he spoke the fated words, "Now that my turn is over, Stardust comes back. Looks like you wasted your chance."

Tilting my head, I sent him my classic smirk, "Actually, I activate my trap card, Harmonia Mirror. If you summon a Synchro monster in a way that isn't a synchro summon, it comes to my field instead. Welcome back old friend."

**_Stardust Dragon-2500_ **

My smile grew massively as Stardust appeared on my field, "Now that it is my turn, I activate my spell Silver Contrails. Any wind-type monster on my field can get a 1000 point bonus."

**_Stardust Dragon-3500_ **

"Now get that Red Dragon…"

Pain laced up and down my forearm. It was so sudden it took away my breath, leaving me unable to finish my sentence. And yet, Stardust still did my will, and attacked.

To my surprise, Sonic Chick exploded, "What trap did you use, Jack?"

"My Synchro Deflector. It destroys a monster on your field instead of mine."

Mind still reeling from the sharp pain, I managed to spit out, "Fine, then I place Ghost Guardna in defense mode and set two facedowns."

**_Stardust Dragon-2500_ **

**_Ghost Guardna-1900_ **

His voice rose in volume as he called out, "Archfiend, destroy Stardust!"

My Ghost glided in front of the attack, and Jack yelled, "What is that thing doing?"

A chuckle slipped out of my mouth as I answered, "Ghost Guardna makes itself the focus of your attack, then lowers your dragon's attack points by a thousand. Sorry about that Jackie Boy."

**_Red Dragon Archfiend-2000_ **

"Since your monster successfully destroyed a monster on my field, I activate Counterattack Beacon, which allows Stardust to attack you with 500 more attack points."

**_Stardust Dragon-3000_ **

But of course his ego wouldn't let me have the last laugh, "I activate Prideful Roar, which exchanges 1000 of my life points to make it so Archfiend has 300 more attack points than your Stardust."

**_Life Points Jack=900_ **

**_Red Dragon Archfiend-3300_ **

**_Life Points Yusei=200_ **

I winced as the pain came back, worse than before, "I remove Shield Warrior from the game in order to keep Stardust on the field."

Suddenly I noticed the red...stuff floating in the sky. As I watched, it solidified into a...dragon?

Jack freaked out, "I play my spell End of Storm!"

_Maybe if we stop dueling this thing will go away_ , "I activate my trap, Meteor…"

A massive gust of wind blew my runner out of control as the screeching of the dragon got louder. Fire danced up and down my forearm, making it glow red as blood. The mysterious dragon flew up, and vanished into the night sky. Odd, because that thing glowed so freaking bright.

I somehow managed to safely stop next to a wall, and slid down it in exhaustion. So many emotions were going through me, and the most prevalent was fear. I ripped off my glove and pushed up my sleeve, only to see that it was my arm that was glowing. The shape was kinda like a triangle, but it was too bright to know for sure.

Just as my arm stopped glowing, I heard sirens approaching. I knew one thing, Jack hadn't called for them. He was the type of person to do things himself, and not make others do his dirty work. He was sitting next to his runner not that far from where I was, and as I watched, he passed out.

_Great._

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> When I first started this story, I did one chapter per episode. Now that I'm trying to fix it, I'm going to try not to break up the duels.


	5. Energetic Old Man

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yusei gets to deal with A- a crazy old man, B- going to jail, and C- people who hate Satellites.

_Never before in my life had I ever been in a room with more hatred aimed at a single person. Or multiple people._

Luckily for me, I was the target of all of the hatred.

I did my best to remain calm as cold handcuffs pinned my arms to the chair. I had heard of courtrooms before, from other Satellites, but never expected them to be this unforgiving.

The judge handling my case was older than anyone I had ever seen, and he kept glancing at me over his glasses as he muttered to himself.

"Doesn't look much like a criminal."

"How did a child get to the city?"

"A runner?"

Finally, he looked me in the eye, and let out a sigh, "You are sentenced to two years in the facility for illegal entry, possession of a stolen item, possession of a runner, and possession of a deck."

A loud slam echoed through the room, and something descended from the ceiling.

Fear coursed through me, How on Earth am I going to survive two years in the Facility? Everyone says that the Securities there are the worst kind imaginable!

The judge calmly walked out of the room, and two officers came up to me. One grabbed my head in a tight grip, while the other pointed the strange thing at my face.

My whole body tried to run away from the burning pain that came from my face, but the handcuffs and officer prevented me from doing so.

When the pain receded, I found myself on the floor. The only thought that went through my mind was simply: How did Crow and Rally handle this at a younger age?

As my mind reeled from the retreating pain, I was pulled to my feet and dragged to the door. Somehow I managed to get my feet under me, so that I could move of my own will.

They put me in the back of a large vehicle, and I looked at the ground instead of the other people, just like all of them were doing. I really wanted to know what kind of mark they put on my face. But from the amount of my face that ached, I had a strong feeling that mine was larger than the ones I saw around me. Either that, or a mark the size of a fingerprint made half of your face hurt.

Someone sat next to me, "Hey there."

I didn't react at all, didn't even flinch. _Surely this person isn't talking to me._

Suddenly an old man put his face where he knew I would see him, "My name's Yunagi. What's yours?"

Due to the amount of pain that I was still in, I just leaned against the wall of the vehicle, hoping that would discourage him, but he kept talking, "I heard that you were also in the city illegally. We were actually caught in the same area."

_Just ignore him, and he will eventually lose interest._

"I overheard that you were caught in the duel arena. Were you the reason the power went out?"

By a miracle, I didn't react physically to the words he said, but I was worried.

_The power went out because of our duel? Or was it the fault of that dragon?_

_And what happened to Jack?_

* * *

I climbed out of the vehicle, just in time to get shoved by one of the Securities. I barely managed to stop next to the one holding some tube thing. A red light scanned my mark, and a screen came out of the tube, displaying a picture of me along with some words. The cop looked at me, "From here on out, you don't have a name. Your number is G2MA2-88, and that is what you will go by anytime a Security officer addresses you for the rest of your life."

_Wonderful. Well, that explains why Rally has been called by a number a couple times, so apparently I was in the same boat now. Well, I was completely stuck in the stupid boat, while she was temporarily enjoying life outside of it._

Once we were all scanned in, we were lead to the low level security area. But for some reason our escort felt like he needed to take us past the high security prisoners. It took so much control to not look for a familiar face.

_Cut it out Yusei. Even if you ended up at the same place, there's no way that he would be in an easily accessible place._

Finally we were led down our hallway, though I could feel a pair of eyes on me. As I glanced around, I noticed a large man watching from one of the cells, leaving me to turn my eyes forward again to (hopefully) not draw anyone's ire towards me.

A group of doors opened in unison, leaving it up to us to decide who to bunk with. The nearest room to me had the old man who was trying to talk to me.

_Come on Yusei. He is the lesser of many evils here. Just be less cold to him, and if he finds out, hopefully he won't tell anyone. What was his name again? Yunagi! Right._

Quietly, I walked inside of the cell, and sat on the bed he hadn't claimed.

"Well, it's kinda nice to be back."

A guard poked his head in, "Later today will be a mandatory citizenship class."

With that, he slammed our door shut.

Scooting back, I leaned against the wall, "You really shouldn't have spoken about the dragon around the others."

He came down from the window where he was looking outside, "Why not?"

"I just want to be anonymous here, get home soon as possible."

A laugh came out of him, "But don't you know that anyone who summons that dragon has a great destiny?"

I looked over at my cellmate, "I don't believe in destiny. There's only what you do, and what you don't. Have you been here before?"

My sudden change of subject barely registered to him, "Only half a dozen times. People tend to think I'm crazy. Do you have a deck?"

One of my eyebrows defied gravity, "No, they took it. Why would you need one in here?"

Yunagi pulled cards out of so many hidden pockets in his clothes I was shocked, "Every place with these kinds of criminals are the same. You survive on respect, and the only way to get any is to duel. But don't worry, kid, you can use mine."

The cards vanished as quickly as they appeared, and he sat back on his bed, "How did a young man like you end up in here, you don't seem like the kind to cause this kind of trouble."

I sighed, "Long story, even longer short answer."

Our door slammed open, and the huge guy from before came in, "You both need to come with us if you know what is good for you."

Fighting my instinct to roll my eyes, I put on my 'Enforcer' face, and followed Yunagi down a different hall into a duel arena. I instantly noticed that none of the other new guys were here, and it hadn't been enough time for anyone to have dueled, "So what makes us the lucky two to be first?"

He marched over to us, "We want to make sure that the trash from Satellite knows exactly what they are. You are the only one here, so your cell gets to be first."

I held my tongue, which was never my strong suit, yet Yunagi popped up between us, "Look here, I had a feeling this would happen, so I brought my deck."

Stepping back, I watched Yunagi get even more excited, "It's the most amazing deck ever, it has cards so rare they are all one of a kind! It has no equal!"

Just then he stopped talking, "Aren't you Bolt Tanner? The famous duelist?"

He glared at Yunagi, "I'm about to be Bolt Tanner the killer if you mention my past one more time. Looks like we know who's going first boys."

One of them handed Yunagi a duel disk, and I backed up even further. Something in my gut told me that no matter how good his deck was, he wouldn't be beating this guy. Yunagi didn't exactly seem like the kind of person who dueled all that often.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Feel free to comment!


	6. Figuring Out a New Deck

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yusei has to duel with a deck that is all spell and no attack points.

As I expected, Yunagi barely lasted three rounds, total. Tanner barely even tried when dueling him, which meant that he wasn’t going to have any respect here. And from what I had heard through the grapevine, you needed respect in order to survive the Facility.

Tanner strolled over to our side of the field, with the cruelest smile that I had seen in a long time, "You weren't kidding that it was a rare deck. It was so rare that most people would have just tossed it in the garbage. And that's right where it's going."

Time seemed to slow down as my body kicked into motion. A massive boot stomped on the cards, while I silently moved towards my target. One hand went on his shoulder as my leg swept his feet out from under him. He hit the floor with a deafening boom, while I gently gathered the cards, “Only those who have lost all respect treat another person’s prized belongings like trash. I’m going to use this deck for my duel.”

Yunagi looked up at me in shock, “But my deck isn’t all that good!”

My face was filled with a smile as I responded, “There’s not a deck on Earth that I can’t win with.”

As he smiled, Tanner stood up, glaring at me like a bull in a ring, "You have a death wish Satellite. I am going to tear you to shreds."

Sliding on the duel disk, I popped my neck, "Respecting what cards come our way is something that is unique to Satellites. We don't get to pick and choose our cards like you people here do."

Pulling myself to my full height (which, granted, wasn’t that much), I put Yunagi’s deck in the disk, "You need to learn the difference between being a duelist, and a bully."

He scoffed, "And you need to learn to respect your betters."

"You only earn my respect through a duel, not by being born in a certain place. And it doesn't even matter if you win, just how well you treat your deck and your opponent."

If looks could kill, I would be mildly burned by the ‘threatening’ glare he sent my way, “Shut up and duel.”

_Alright, deck. I know I am a stranger to you, but we need to work together to cheer up Yunagi. These people have made his faith in you falter, and we need to show him that he was right._

To no surprise, Tanner took the first turn, “I summon Jirai Gumo in attack mode, then end my turn."

**_Jirai Gumo-2200_ **

Scanning the motley assortment of cards in my hand, I read what each of them could do.

_Okay, I'm just going to assume that this is the only way to win with this deck._

I looked at the other cards in my hand. _And if I play this card with Crystal Skull, it will decrease HIS life points instead of MINE._

Looking up with a straight face, I put a card down, "I summon Crystal Skull in defensive mode."

**_Crystal Skull-2000_ **

His lackeys all laughed like I said the funniest joke in the whole universe, meanwhile I stuck the next card on my duel disk, "And then I play the Curse Reflection Doll trap card."

Silence reigned as they stared in shock as the doll absorbed the attack and sent it to Tanner instead.

**_Life Points Tanner=3000_ **

_He clearly didn't expect something like that from this deck._

Somehow keeping my face expressionless, I raised an eyebrow up, "You didn't know that the trap card I played turns any damage I should have taken from an ability to you?"

“Shut up. I release Jiral Gumo in order to summon Ushi Oni."

**_Ushi Oni-2150_ **

_Ah, one of those people who use the same two or three strategies to win. No small wonder that he couldn’t make it in the big leagues._

"I release Ushi Oni in order to summon Giant Ushi Oni!"

**_Giant Ushioni-2600_ **

The urge to roll my eyes was overwhelming, but I managed not too. 

_Predictable at best. And with Stonehenge in my hand, he will only get rid of Crystal Skull for one turn._

"Now take out that Crystal Skull!"

All of the lovely inmates cheered as the skull shattered, while he puffed up and smirked, "When Giant Ushi Oni destroys a monster in battle, he can attack again. I think I'll attack you directly."

**_Life Points Yusei=1400_ **

“I place two facedown cards and end my turn.”

Joy bubbled up inside of me as I saw another of the cards that I needed, "I summon Ashoka Pillar in defensive mode and place one card facedown."

**_Ashoka Pillar-2200_ **

"Then I play the spell Stonehenge, which allows me to summon another card in defensive mode from the graveyard if it has no attack points."

_**Crystal Skull-2000** _

Once again, they all laughed like I said the funniest joke in the history of jokes as my life points dropped.

_**Life Points Yusei=400** _

Tanner turned to them, "Shut up all of you! Giant Ushi Oni can only attack twice! But...I've heard of that pillar thing. It deals damage to the owner, right?"

I nodded, realising what his plan would be, "Two thousand."

"Giant Ushi Oni, attack that Ashoka Pillar!"

My facedown card flipped up as I spoke, "My trap card activates, Totem Pole. It can negate your attack up to three times."

He smiled, "Just what I was waiting for. _My_ trap card activates! Spider Web Castle! If any of your monsters attack, their attack points will be cut in half."

Fighting the urge to smile, I closed my eyes, Did he forget that this whole deck MAYBE has 50 attack points total? Seriously, it's the spells of this deck you have to beware, in case you haven't noticed that yet.

He continued, "I place one card facedown, and let you have a turn."

_Come on deck, help me out!_

A smile slipped onto my face when I saw what I drew, "I activate the Piri Reis Map spell card. This allows me to draw a monster with no attack points. And I am going to summon it, Cabrera Stone."

**_Cabrera Stone-0_ **

"Of course, using this spell cuts my life points in half."

**_Life Points Yusei=200_ **

"Then, I activate a spell called Triangle O."

My smile only grew as the card completely decimated everything on the field, “So, in case you didn’t know, this card destroys every singe card on the field, and all damage that would have been taken by me, such as Ashoka Pillar and Cabrera Stone, is dealt to you instead.”

_**Life Points Tanner=0 Defeat!** _

Tanner walked over to me with a genuine smile on his face, "That was the best duel I've seen in years. You have to be a good duelist in order to win with that deck.”

He turned to look at Yunagi, who had taken all of the cards from me, “I'm sorry old timer for stepping on your deck."

Yunagi smiled as he held up his deck, "Isn't it wonderful? For a while you had me doubting how amazing it was, but then I realised that it was me that wasn't so good in a duel, not my deck."

Tanner turned to me, "So, Satellite, do you have a name?"

I nodded, "Yusei."

Just then the doors opened and we all turned around. Two guards marched in holding batons that I knew from experience could give you an electric jolt. One of them was looking right at me, "G2MA2-88, you haven't been fully processed, so we are going to need to take you in for some routine testing."

_Oh no, this isn't going to be fun._

* * *

Apparently, in order to escort prisoners, it was required to cut off circulation in their arms. _Why are they inspecting me again? I already got a check back when I was initially put in the system._

A small amount of panic built up inside of me, _Please let the same lie work twice._

I was dragged inside of a room where a few people in strange white coats were milling around, along with a whale of a man. All of them looked over when I entered, and he marched over to me, "I could smell this Satellite trash from down the hall. Don't you scum know what a bath is?"

Decidedly keeping any expression off my face, I acted like I didn't hear what he said.

He didn't appreciate that. My hair was roughly yanked up, forcing me to look at his face, "You respond when I talk to you, Trash."

Using my hair as a handle, he chucked me toward the white coats, "Start the tests."

They dragged me into an empty room, then snapped at me, "Remove your clothing."

Reluctantly I obeyed, silently grateful that I was used to changing in front of people. I removed everything except for my underwear, then put my arms at my side, Just imagine it's one of Martha's check-ups.

Eyes locked on my bandage-covered chest, "What is that?"

"I fell on poison ivy a couple weeks ago. Our doctor told me not to let any other skin touch that part."

Just like the first time, all of them scrambled back. One rushed out of the room, likely to get the big guy, who until further notice was going to be called Whale in my head. Sure enough, he came in with the one who left, "Poison ivy?"

"We don't have soap to get rid of it, and nothing else works. Poison ivy is a life sentence for us."

He marched back out of the room, "Keep it on, I don't want to have to deal with that."

As the door slammed behind him, I mentally let out a breath of relief. First of all, thank heavens for knowing what poison ivy is. Secondly, thank heavens they bought that stupid lie about us not having soap. The rumors against us are way too easy to use to our advantage.

My joy didn't last long.

* * *

Every muscle in my body clenched, twitched, or flailed as electricity coursed through me. My brain had given up on processing pain after the third test, leaving me somehow disconnected from the signals that were supposed to be going to my head.

The big guy pulled me off the machine as I tried to get my breath back. Apparently, Securities made it so you didn't misbehave my overloading your system with shocks. First the mark being put on, now this. My body was barely cooperating with me at the current moment.

What little of my brain that was working nearly gave out as he breathed directly into my face, "Just remember this, you little punk: You don't get any rights. Not even the right to privacy. Try anything, and you'll regret it."

I was dropped back down, vaguely hearing his voice above me, "Keep testing him. Tell me if anything interesting happens."

Hours later, they finally decided to stop testing me, and my body gave out on me. I felt my body hit the ground as my world went black.

* * *

I came to on the floor of the cell, thankfully fully clothed. I honestly felt like just lying there until the morning, if SOMEBODY wasn't asking me so many questions.

Yunagi was in my face, "What on earth did they do to you? You look awful! Why did they do this to you?"

Every muscle in my body screamed out in agony as I forced myself up, "They are fond of their electricity, that's all."

He hovered over me as I climbed back onto my bed, "But why did they do this to you? Surely they had a reason."

My mind sluggishly pondered over the question, then murmured, "Maybe they thought I had something to do with that giant red dragon that showed up."

Flopping down at my side, he chuckled, "That wouldn't mean anything unless you had a Signer's mark."

I weakly lifted the arm in question, "My arm glowed when it showed up. But once it was gone, so was the glow."

Yunagi reached out a hand, "I know a lot about the Crimson Dragon. Before I talk about it though, we should get you off the ground and onto a bed."

Somehow, we managed to get me back onto my bed, where I immediately laid down and covered my eyes, "Okay, explain what you know about the magic dragon."

My mattress sunk under his weight, "It's a legend from Peru in South America. I once met a tribe from there, who explained it to me, but bear in mind, I'm translating this in my head from their native dialect, so the translations may not be perfect.

"The Crimson Dragon is the protector of the world, who can only be summoned by those who bear his mark. There is always five of them at a time, and from what I understood, those people show up around every 5000 years or so. Each one of these 'Signers' control a dragon themselves, which would protect them until the death."

I looked at him, raising an eyebrow, "Dragons?"

His face lit up, "Yes! You wouldn't happen to have a dragon in the deck they took away, would you?"

"There is a dragon card that I've had that felt different than my other cards, but a former friend stole it from me a couple years ago. I was arrested trying to get it back from him."

No living being should be able to be as loud as him, "That must mean he is one too!"

My arm went back on my face, "I need sleep, Yunagi. Let's talk about this later."

_Could it be true?_

* * *


	7. Getting Through a Day

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Apparently bodies are not supposed to hold up against that many shocks in one day. Unfortunately for Yusei, Sector Security doesn't care.

A loud buzz shattered any chance I had to sleep, and I stared at the window, “How long have I been asleep?”

“Oh, you slept the rest of the day. That’s the morning alarm to wake everyone up.”

My arms shook as I pushed myself into a sitting position. Every inch of my body screamed in agony as I swung my feet down to the ground.

Yunagi rushed to my side, “I hope they don’t expect you to attend the rehabilitation classes! You can barely sit up by yourself!”

Food was dropped off by a smirking guard, “You have half an hour to be ready for the rehabilitation class.”

I grabbed my food from Yunagi’s hands, “Something tells me that I am going to the one today, regardless of my health.”

The door opened, and Tanner walked in, “You look like crap. What’d they do to you?”

“They electrocuted him! And those insane people are expecting him to attend the class regardless of how weak he is!”

Dropping my tray onto the mattress, a sigh escaped my mouth, “Yunagi, keep your voice down unless you want them to target you.”

A hand reached out, “We’ll make sure that you don’t fall over. Here’s hoping that today’s ‘lesson’ is going to be short.”

Walking was a challenge, but the crew who had been at the duel stayed near me, somehow knowing about my problem without me seeing a conversation happening. When we arrived in the room where we would have our ‘lesson’, they stood around me like an honor guard.

Once everyone was in lines, Giant Whale started yelling, "Straighten up you vagrants! For today's rehabilitation lesson, we invited the Director, Rex Goodwin, to speak about the purpose of the Public Security Bureau."

About the time that was said, my left knee temporarily gave out. Tanner quietly grabbed my jacket until I regained my balance. Unfortunately for me, my stumble drew the attention of Director Goodwin. I made eye contact with the man who was Jack's boss, and most likely the reason I was here. He started talking, "The purpose of the Bureau is to make sure the city runs as smoothly as possible. We make sure that those who are undesirable are taken away from the chosen and put in an environment that is better suited for them, such as the Satellite."

I think he continued for a long time, but I just stopped listening to him. My attention was more focused on trying not to fall over. After far too long, he finally stopped talking and we were allowed to leave. Our group was filing out of the room when Giant Whale stopped me, "Wait a moment reject. The Director would like to have a private word with you."

Out of the corner of my eye, I could see Tanner and Yunagi tense up when they heard that, but I waved them on and obediently went to talk with Director Goodwin. _Of course the bastard wants to talk to me._

He was standing in a smaller room, trying to look impressive, yet utterly failing. I quietly walked in and he turned to me, "What happened to your mark, the one that showed up in the stadium?"

Despite my fatigue, I felt something inside of me that Crow used to call “Satellite Spit-Fire” rise up, causing me to lock eyes with this man, “My memory of that night is very hazy, but I think I would remember if a ‘mark’ showed up on my arm.”

This man clearly didn’t know a thing about Satellites, because he tried to intimidate me with a glare, "I'm not kidding young man. Tell me what happened."

Keeping my face completely neutral, I robotically replied, “The only mark on my body that I am aware of is the one on my face. If the people who tested me yesterday didn’t see it, then it clearly doesn’t exist.”

To my humor, the Director swept out in a huff that reminded me of a child who didn’t get the toy they wanted.

My humor vanished the second guards came to get me. The way they were smiling did not indicate a nice return to my cell.


	8. Hive Grand Entrance

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Turns out that talking back to the Director had some (slightly) unforeseen results.

I was not dragged back in the direction of the cell that had been my home for the past two days. Rather, I was half-carried to the area of the prison meant for maximum security prisoners. Once again, my traitorous eyes flicked upwards before I managed to force them back to the ground.

The grip on my arms didn’t lighten as I was shoved up five flights of stairs. Everyone in the common area stared at me as I was marched into a room, then forcefully let go. Before I could blink, the door slammed shut behind me, leaving just me and my new roommate. 

He started talking the second the door shut, but my body was screaming for sleep. I pulled myself onto the top bunk, dropping down like a bag of rocks.

_ How did I guess that something like this was going to happen? _

My roommate was still trying to make conversation, "My name is Alex. I was brought up here when I was caught trying to escape. What's your story?"

"Yusei, and none of your business."

"Aw, come on! I told you why I was here. Fine, were you trying to escape?"

"Not even close."

"Attacked a guard?"

I laughed, "Hardly."

"One of the other inmates?"

"Nope."

He sighed in complete frustration, "Do you even know?"

"Not in the slightest."

After that, he finally left me alone and I finally was allowed to doze off.

My peaceful rest was destroyed by the bell alerting all of the prisoners that free time was starting. Every muscle screamed as I sat up and climbed out of bed.

Thankfully, Alex had already left the room by the time I got out of bed.

Unfortunately, I had barely gotten out of my door when a familiar ball of energy shot up in front of me, “Did you get moved here too?”

“Yunagi? Did anyone else get moved here?”

His eyes sparkled as he led the way, bouncing, “I ended up sharing a room with Tanner, but I don’t think that anyone else was moved.”

Red flags flew up, and a question fell out of my mouth that was bothering me for the past couple days, “Hey, Yunagi? How long, typically, is the sentence for going somewhere that you aren’t supposed to go?”

“Around 2 or 3 months typically, it mostly depends on how much you have been caught. Why do you ask?”

By this point in our conversation, we had gotten to where Tanner leaned against a pillar, “I was curious because I was wondering why my sentence is so long.”

Tanner’s eyes locked on me, “How long IS your sentence?”

“Two years for trespassing, coming to the city as a Satellite, owning a deck, and owning a runner.”

Both of them stared at me like I grew a second head (which wouldn’t be shocking from all of the stuff dumped in Satellite), before Tanner spoke, “Are those normally crimes for Satellites?”

“Yep. One of my foster brothers keeps getting thrown in here for having a deck. Thank heavens that they don’t know about his eyesore of a runner.”

Once again, Yunagi jumped into my face, “You have a runner?”

A sigh escaped me, “Past tense. It was taken by Security when I was arrested.”

Tanner moved into my personal space, “How long is a typical sentence for a deck and runner?”

“A month or two for a deck, six for a runner. Most of the time in Satellite the cops just take our stuff and that’s the punishment.”

Both men stared at me in confusion, while Yunagi spoke what we were all thinking, “Two years? But that would make your final sentence over a year long! That’s absurd!”

Keeping my face calm, I leaned against the railing, “I’m well aware. I never said that Sector Security likes Satellites. Maybe it is that long, maybe they’re just counting on me to not know the rules.”

A loud bell rang through the enclosure, causing me to stretch, “Well, looks like we need to get back to our rock hard beds.”

I lay on my bed, trying to ignore the aches in my body as the sun fell beyond the horizon, _Seriously. How could my sentence be so long? Crow’s never been gone for more than a month or two, despite all of the insane shenanigans he decides to do. Is their precious way of life so dependent on us being meek little mice?_

“Psst.”

For a second, I debated on whether or not to look at what my roommate was doing.

Curiosity won.

Leaning over the edge of the bed, I saw his mattress propped up, and a massive hole underneath. My rebellious mouth spoke before I could think about what I was seeing, “What in the world?”

Alex stuck one foot into the hole, then waved at me to follow him before disappearing down the shaft.

I dropped silently onto the ground, following him like I had my foster brothers once upon a time on our little jaunts around Satellite (that our mother figure had no idea about). 

The two of us slipped through the belly of the prison, and outside into fresh air. We slid along the outside wall, both trying not to slip until we got to a certain point. Alex pointed up above us to the road, “Tomorrow night my friends are going to bust me out. My sentence should have ended eight months ago, but now I have no idea when I’ll get out. I’m willing to take you with me.”

“Only if my friends can come. If I escape, they’ll be punished.”

Wide eyes stared at me in horror, “Well, if that’s the case...sure. They can come too.”


	9. Inescapable Pain

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Turns out that Armstrong is completely unfair to those in his prison. And Yusei gets to face the brunt of that.

Loud voices echoed around the cement building, yanking me from the realm of dreams. Rolling over, I glanced at the window, "What's going on out there?"

My view out was blocked by Alex, "It looks like your big friend is being roughed up by the officers."

The speed at which I reached the window was nearly superhuman, though the view was chilling.

Tanner lay face first on the center platform, so still that it was hard to see him breathe. Giant Whale was standing over him, yelling at a volume that should have only been possible with a megaphone, "Y'all are all going into lockdown because I realised that I've been too soft on y'all. Tanner here had a deck, and attacked one of my officers when we took it from him. I wonder what you've all gotten away with?"

After sparing my teeth from grinding them together, I spoke up, "The deck wasn't exactly a secret. He dueled every new person that came into this place."

Beady eyes glared up at me, "And what are you implying?"

"That you use any power given to you to harm others."

He pretended to be shocked and offended, but he would need about 300 more acting lessons before it would start to be believable, "I am so hurt that a piece of garbage from Satellite thinks that I'm despicable. You should take that back before someone gets hurt."

Scoffing as I crossed my arms, I spoke in an even tone, "Even Satellites can have a moral compass, just like any good duelist does."

True offense was filling his face as he kept talking, "I'm a duelist, are you saying that I'm not a REAL duelist?"

"Yes."

Fury filled his face, "Then how about we duel to find out? If you win, Tanner gets off scot free. If not…"

"I will stay here for the rest of my life."

Alex's voice hissed in my ear as I continued to stare down the horrible man, "What are you doing?"

Giant Whale laughed so hard I could almost smell his foul breath, "And what about the old man? He also had a deck on him."

 _No way I'll let him mess with my friends_ , "He also gets off free if I win."

"You got yourself a deal, Satellite."

* * *

Exactly at 8:30 PM, I was escorted down to a platform that the majority of inmates could see with little to no effort, where Giant Whale was waiting. I calmly made eye contact with him as he laughed like a lunatic, "You need a deck to duel, Satellite, or did you forget that one minor detail."

Keeping the smile off my face was so ridiculously hard, "Which is why I have one."

Absolutely every guard looked floored as I held up my modge-podge deck of donated cards, "Most of the people here managed to keep one card when they were thrown in, and thanks to them donating their cards to me, I have enough for a full deck."

There were a couple veins on his face that were trying to pop, "Fine! Put on the duel disks!"

Loud clinks warned me of what I could barely comprehend: the duel disks were attached to chains bolted on the ground. My eyes looked up at my opponent, "Why the chain?"

No human being should be able to smile that coldly, "Let's just say that the results of this duel will be shocking."

My jaw attempted to crush my teeth, and I bit out, "I summon Great Phantom Thief in defense mode and then end my turn."

**_Great Phantom Thief - 1000_ **

His laugh was more grating on the nerves than literally anything I had experienced before, "I start my turn by summoning Iron Chain Repairman in attack mode. Take out that pathetic ghost!"

**_Iron Chain Repairman - 1600_ **

It was kinda cool to see the way his monster attacked, but I didn't like it when my monster was destroyed. He kept laughing, "His special ability kids in, whenever he defeats a monster, you take 300 points of damage."

**_Life Points Yusei=3700_ **

My vision went white as searing pain shot up and down my body, dropping me to the floor like a sack of flour. As my body came back into control, Giant Whale's laugh bounced around in my head, "It seems like I neglected to mention the fact that these chains help you to be aware of exactly how many life points you have lost."

Pushing off the ground, and staggering to my feet, I watched him place two facedowns.

I blinked a couple times to make sure that my vision was clear before starting my turn, "I summon Kickman in attack mode."

**_Kickman - 1300_ **

"Next I equip him with the spell card Stim-Pack, which gives him an additional 700 attack points."

**_Kickman - 2000_ **

By the time I had everything set up, the muscle spasms had calmed down, "Attack his Iron Chain Repairman!"

Yet again I was forced to see him smile smugly, "I activate Soul Anchor, which makes my monster indestructible in battle."

One of my eyebrows rose up, "So? You still take damage."

**_Life Points Armstrong=3600_ **

His scream sounded off, but it was quickly revealed why as he started to laugh, "Oh, no. It seems that my duel disk's electric current is not functioning!"

Voices came out of the cells:

"Dirty rotten cheat!"

"Quit the duel!"

"Beat the crooked cop!"

Ignoring the voices, Giant Whale continued, "I summon Iron Chain Snake in attack mode."

**_Iron Chain Snake - 800_ **

"And then I activate his special ability, which equips him to your monster, and takes away 800 of his points."

Kickman got wrapped up like a kitten in a ball of yarn before I could even process the sentence.

**_Kickman - 1200_ **

Bracing myself, I waited for the next inevitable sentence, "Repairman, attack!"

**_Life Points Yusei=3300_ **

Once again, pain filled my body as I hit the ground, barely able to hear the next sentence, "And his effect takes another 300 points."

**_Life Points Yusei=3000_ **

My vision swirled around as I brought myself back from the brink of unconsciousness. _Don't let them down, they are all depending on you._

Pushing myself back to my feet, I ignored his laughter, "When a monster than Iron Chain Snake is equipped to is destroyed, you have to send one card to the graveyard for every level that monster had. He was a level three, so say goodbye to three of your cards."

No muscle in my body wanted to move, but somehow I managed to send my cards to the graveyard. Internally, I was grateful that my face was too tired to smile, _He doesn't know what he's doing._

Scanning the cards in my hand, I plotted my next move, "I play the spell Nightmare Steel Cage. No monsters can declare battle on anything on my side of the field. The only downside is that I cannot summon any monsters until the spell ends."

I quietly placed Call of the Haunted facedown on my field before ending my turn.

He eyed the cage around me, "Well, I guess that you can't stand being away from the bars! I summon Iron Chain Snake from my hand, and then I use Iron Chain Repairman's special ability to bring a level four or below Chain monster back from the graveyard, so I summon my other Iron Chain Snake."

**_Iron Chain Snake-800_ **

**_Iron Chain Snake-800_ **

"Then I activate two spells: Poison Chain and Paralyzing Chain. Poison Chain makes it so that for every turn I don't battle, you send an amount of cards to the graveyard equal to the total level of my field. My total level right now is ten."

I sent the cards willingly, hoping that my grimace looked real. Once I did that, he kept talking, "And whenever you send cards from the deck to the graveyard you take 300 points of damage."

**_Life Points Yusei=2700_ **

_Oh boy_. I curled up as my life points dropped, trying to not scream, which was harder each time. I stood back up, "I place three cards facedown and..."

Giant Whale interrupted me, "I activate Psychic Cyclone. I choose if a card is a trap or a spell, and if I'm right, I get to draw a card and yours is destroyed."

He pointed at Dust Tornado, "I say that one is a trap."

For a second shock registered through my system, before it clicked, _This is his home turf, and a jail no less. There has to be countless cameras, which are doubtless pointed at me right now. Well, at least that will be good for Alex to escape._

I sighed, "Then I guess I will place another card facedown."

A smile revealed his unnaturally straight teeth, "I summon Iron Chain Blaster in attack mode."

**_Iron Chain Blaster-1100_ **

"And then Poison Chain makes you discard 12 cards."

My cards had barely gotten into the graveyard when he spoke again, "And then of course I use Paralyzing Chain."

**_Life Points Yusei=2400_ **

Once again, I ended up on the ground, slowly catching my breath. I looked up just in time for him to continue, "I activate Blaster's special ability. I send one of my snakes to the graveyard in order to dent your life points."

**_Life Points Yusei=1600_ **

My cage dissolved, and I was having difficulty getting up, and staying up. My hands shook as I drew the next card, the lights plummeting off before I could even look at it.

_Now's my chance!_

Despite my shaking fingers, I managed to switch two of my facedowns, and slid Rubble King up my sleeve. Before I could do anything else, the lights kicked back on. Giant Whale was whispering to his coat collar, which was likely connected to how he knew what card was where.

_The lights going out was probably Alex's friends helping him get out of here. Wish I could have gone with him._

Clearing my throat, I started my turn, "I activate my spell, Jar of Greed, which lets me draw one more card. Then I use Call of the Haunted to bring Kickman back from the graveyard."

**_Kickman-1300_ **

"His special ability lets him use any equip card in my graveyard, which is pretty full right now. I choose Axe of Despair, which adds 1000 points to his attack points."

**_Kickman-2300_ **

Looking at my hand, I placed another card down, "Then I summon Exiled Force in attack mode."

**_Exiled Force-1000_ **

"Now take out Iron Chain Snake."

**_Life Points Armstrong=2100_ **

I watched in joy as he got the same punishment that I did. And to add to my joy, I could still attack. I smiled, "Exiled Force, take out the other snake!"

"Wait, no! There's a glitch in my dueldi-"

I watched in well hidden joy as his points dropped further as he squirmed in pain.

The intercom turned on, "We found someone in the mechanical room. We are bringing him to you right now."

A group of guards brought Alex toward us as Giant Whale stumbled to his feet. The Whale pointed at Alex, "How did you get out of your cell?"

One of the guards saluted him, "A hole under his bed."

The two were talking about something when Alex spoke up with pride, "I turned it on. I doubt they know how I did it, so they can't turn it off without ending the duel."

I nodded at Alex and turned to the big guy, "If I win he also gets off without a punishment."

He glared at me, "As if a piece of garbage like you would ever win this duel."

All of the inmates started cheering my name as I continued the duel, "Due to Exiled Force's special ability, I can send them to the graveyard in order to destroy a monster on your side of the field. I choose Repairman."

I watched as it disappeared, and as he got madder and madder. He drew his next card, "I play Reload, which allows me to put my hand back into the deck, which is shuffled. Then I get to draw the same amount of cards. Next I play Mystical Space Typhoon, and I'll use it to destroy the card on the...left!"

 _It is really hard to not smile when someone doesn't realize that they've been tricked._ I watched in humor as he freaked out that it wasn't the right card, "Oh, you mean this card?"

Battle Mania flipped up, and his anger shot higher than the heavens. His voice rose even louder than his ego, "You think that's funny, huh? I'll show you something that is funny! I summon Iron Coil, and use it to tune my Blaster to summon Iron Chain Dragon!"

**_Iron Chain Dragon-2500_ **

Great. Just what I didn't want. He continued, "For every 'Iron Chain' monster I removed from play form the graveyard he gains 200 attack points. I remove all five from play to give him an extra 1000 points."

**_Iron Chain Dragon-3500_ **

I braced myself for the attack and watched as my Kickman was destroyed.

**_Life Points Yusei=400_ **

_The pain is definitely getting worse each time. If this goes on much longer I'm going to pass out._ I could barely hear Giant Whale talk about how I had to send three cards to the graveyard. I sent them away, and once again braced myself for the effect of Paralyzing Chain.

**_Life Points Yusei=100_ **

My body hit the ground again, and I gasped for breath, secretly proud of myself for not screaming at some point during this duel. I staggered to my feet and drew my last card.

He started laughing like a maniac, "This duel is over! You have only one card left and 100 life points."

I interrupted him, "You are right in a way, because you are about to lose."

A simple flick of my wrist revealed Rubble King, which I promptly held out to show him, "Once I realized that you were spying on my hand, I took the first opportunity to hide the card crucial to my plan from your cameras. I summon Rubble King to the field in attack mode."

**_Rubble King-0_ **

I summoned Rubble King, "If Rubble King is on my field when I have thirty or more cards in my graveyard, I can activate a spell directly from my hand. The only one I have left is Blasting the Ruins which can only activate also if I have 30 or more cards in my graveyard, thank you so very much, you take damage equal to each card times ten. So in other words, the least amount of damage that you could take in this scenario is 3000. And you were saying that my mismatched deck is useless?"

Rocks appeared around me, then launched towards Armstrong, who collapsed from the shocks.

**_Life Points Armstrong=0 Defeat!_ **

He pushed himself up, yelling at the top of his lungs, "Arrest both of them!"

I glared at him, but before I could say anything, a voice interrupted, "You are fired Mr. Armstrong. Vacate the premises within the hour."

My eyes snapped up to see the director standing on a walkway, glaring at the fallen man in front of me. _Giant Whale must have overstepped his boundaries on this duel._

Armstrong got dragged away by guards screaming as the Director walked away. Every door burst open, letting all of my fellow inmates swarm me.

I passed out the cards to their respective owners, as I repeatedly got slapped on the back in congratulations. By the time Tanner and Yunagi got to me, my back was killing me.

"Great job, Yusei."

Rolling my shoulders, I chuckled, "The only hard thing about the duel was the pain from the shocks. Other than that, it wasn't the worst duel I've been in."

"Why does that not surprise me?"


	10. Justice Breaks Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yusei gets her runner back with the help of a mysterious new helper.

Either there were a lot of people in this stupidly shiny city who liked to wear suits and sunglasses, or I was being poorly followed. In one hour, I had seen about twenty of these guys, and all of them would look right at me. I also noticed that the general populace would either be glaring at me or running to the other side to avoid me.

Deciding to figure out if these creeps were following me, I focused, diving into my inner self and received a wave of boredom, hatred, annoyance, and a little bit of disgust from the guys that were walking the same direction as me. I bit back a laugh, _Definitely following me, the Empress of Annoying the Cops._

Rolling my eyes, I ducked into a small road and quickly found the restaurant that Tanner had told me to look for. I calmly walked down the stairs, and sat down right in front of the bartender. Before he could talk, I slid Giant Ushi Oni across the counter, "I'd like some milk."

He did a double take, and then gave me a glass, "Do you want anything else?"

I nodded, "A friend of mine asked me to check in on his friend Blister. Do you know where I can find him?"

Both eyes looked over my shoulder as he quietly responded, "Do you know those guys?"

"They in suits?"

A single nod told me everything I needed to know, "They've been following me for over an hour."

He motioned to the door, "I'm sure you'll meet Blister soon."

Downing my drink in one go, I nodded back to him, "Thank you."

Sliding the glass back over to him, I walked out of the bar only to keep walking down the small street. Their footsteps were fairly loud behind me, but my ears also were picking up something else; the engine of a runner.

_So, from what that bartender is saying, this Blister must be on his way to me. Hope he has a way to get me off the radar, because I don’t have ANY of my normal tech._

_A runner crashed down next to me with no warning._

_My stalkers started rushing forward, but only got a couple steps towards me before an arm wrapped around me, yanking me over the seat._

The person who grabbed me drove rapidly through the streets while pointing a laser at the mark on my face, “Does this neutralize my tracker?”

He grunted, "Yes, now keep still."

_Trying to stay still on a runner is a true test of anyone’s skill, but I’ll give it my best shot._

After a long and bumpy ride, my ribs were grateful that we arrived at his hideout. I popped my back as he took off his helmet, “Tanner said that you could help me out with a not-so-legal task I want to get done.”

Blister lazily waved for me to follow him, and we arrived in a room with a couple computers set up, "What exactly do you need help with?"

Flopping down on a nearby chair, I focused on keeping my voice low, "All I'm going to tell you is that Security stole my runner from me and I need it back as soon as possible."

He nodded while booting up a computer, "Then it's a good thing for you that Tanner left all of his money with me when he was arrested. Normally I charge an arm and a leg for things like that."

I shrugged, "Thanks, I guess."

While he started working, I got up to stretch out all of my sore muscles (of which there were many). Mostly, I was just trying to keep moving to stop myself from dozing off.

_I can’t afford to fall asleep right now._

"Hey, Blister, do you have a spare computer? I need to check on something."

My question didn’t even cause him to look up, "Yeah, there's one in the cupboard behind you. Should still have some battery power."

On top of the cupboard in question was a picture that caught my attention. Instead of doing my initial idea of looking up Goodwin, instead typing out: _Blister duelist._

A few articles were worthless, but I finally found one that was an article from a few years ago:

**Paired Dueling Team in Hospital After Accident in Duel**

_In a climatic duel, the rising champions Blister and Arrow were involved in a crash when their opponent’s runner lost control. A piece of the opposing runner hit the pair’s runner, sending them off the track into a nearby power plant. Neither is available for questions at this moment._

_Update: Blister received minor injuries, while Arrow is undergoing treatment for 2nd degree burns._

_He clearly isn’t dueling anymore. For someone who used to be on the top to be openly breaking the law, he’s been through some rough patches. In fact he seems to be bitter about something. It almost reminded me of...NO, I promised myself that I wouldn't think of that anymore._

With a few clicks, all record of my search was gone (unless he specifically looked for that), and I did a quick looksie at Director Goodwin’s past. There was absolutely nothing besides his acts as Director. Shutting down the internet in frustration, I went back over to the picture that caught my attention. 

As I picked it up, my hand brushed something on the back. Flipping it over, my eyes landed on a badly burned card.

_This must be from their deck. It probably was in the fire that got his teammate._

A slam woke me up from my dreamless sleep. I looked up at him, "That's everything I need?"

The bang likely came from the large bag in front of me. His hand rested on top of it as he spoke, "Why do you need to get this runner back?"

Stretching as I got out of the chair I had fallen asleep in, I looked him directly in the eyes, "Because I left my friends defenseless back in Satellite. I need that runner to get back to them before they start worrying."

Blister bristled, "Why would you ever do that for some ‘friends’?"

Gently pulling the bag out from under his hand, I stared even more intensely at him, "My friends are my family. We stick together through thick and thin. I came to remind someone of that, and now I am going home."

His eyes landed on the picture, "I used to feel that way, but I’ve learned better than to think like that."

Finally breaking eye contact, I swung the bag over my shoulder, "The fact that he rescued that card from the fire meant that he still cared about you, no matter what you thought."

My feet carried me out of the building before he reacted, hoping that my voice hadn’t gone high again, and instead had stayed deep and masculine.

_Even if Tanner trusts him, it’s not safe to be a woman among criminals._

Entering a Sector Security building made me very nervous, but this was the only way for me to get my runner back, so I forced myself into my ‘ _don’t notice me, I’m not important_ ’ walk. It worked on the coppers at home, so it should definitely work on the ones here.

To get up to Justice was a challenge. I had to follow the exact route that Blister set out for me, so that I wouldn’t be caught on any cameras or alarm systems. And then I had to manually avoid the patrolling robots, _It's almost like they don't want me taking it back from them. Imagine that._

Finally I found the right door, quickly typing in the code. Slipping inside, I pulled out the chip detector that Blister had left for me. I silently followed the signal to one of the crates on the left side. Smiling, I put away the machine just before bright lights destroyed my eyes.

It took a couple seconds to clear my vision, but I didn't need my eyes to recognize that laugh. I glared, "What do you want Trudge?"

He was almost yelling, "You do realize that breaking into Security's impound center is grounds for years in the Facility."

_And? No one is going to keep me from my runner._

I shot forward and jumped over the edge of the crate, landing on the other side. I shoved the bag Blister gave me inside of my seat, glad that nothing had been moved. I sat on the runner and powered it up just in time to hear him telling me that Justice was offline. I scoffed, "Nothing is ever offline for me."

Revving the engine, I broke through the wall of the crate, just barely missing Trudge's head as I shot past him. All of the cronies that he brought with him scattered like litter in a storm, making it way too simple to get back out of the room and down the hallway.

Justice had only made it past a couple of other vaults before Trudge caught up to me.

He was still yelling, "Why would you risk your life to get such a piece of junk?"

Sighing, I braced myself for the duel that was sure to follow him.


	11. Kicking Out Another Duel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Trudge is looking for another rematch, but this time inside of a building.

The thought of Trudge likely forcing me into a duel was practically instantly followed by my runner changing into duel mode.

_I guess he wants to be beaten again. I'm looking forward to this._

Drawing my cards, "Since you are forcing me to duel, I will take the first turn. I summon Quillbolt Hedgehog in defense mode, and end my turn."

**_Quillbolt Hedgehog-800_ **

His now customary laugh came from behind me, "I summon Search Striker in attack mode."

**_Search Striker-1600_ **

"Now take out that rodent!"

_He is not going to get the pleasure of me getting upset._

Quillbolt shattered under attack, but thankfully Trudge's next words were, "And then I end my turn."

As I drew my next card, a smile nearly came on my face, _Perfect._

Keeping my voice even, I put my card down, "I summon Junk Synchron in attack mode, and his special ability brings back Quillbolt from the graveyard in defense mode."

**_Junk Synchron-1300_ **

**_Quillbolt Hedgehog-800_ **

"Next, I tune the two of them together into Junk Warrior."

**_Junk Warrior-2300_ **

Suddenly I heard the sound that meant a trap was activating, and I turned around to see what it was. He smiled, "I activate Discord Counter, which destroys your Junk Warrior, puts the monsters that summoned it in defense mode, and makes it so you can't summon any monsters for two rounds."

**_Junk Synchron-1300_ **

**_Quillbolt Hedgehog-800_ **

_Just wonderful. And now he's probably going to summon at least one monster just to rub it in my face that I can't._

"I summon Pursuit Chaser in attack mode."

**_Pursuit Chaser-1400_ **

His next words brought fury into my soul, "My monsters will now take out your pathetic creatures!"

Both monsters shattered, while he continued talking with his aggravating voice, "Whenever Pursuit Chaser destroys a monster in defense mode, you take 500 points of damage.

**_Life Points Yusei=3500_ **

_Without the ability to summon a monster, this is all I can do._

"My turn. I place one card facedown and end."

We rounded a corner, revealing the door of the elevator in front of us. There was not a single way to turn and avoid it.

"I'll take care of that."

_Where did that voice come from?_

The voice came again, this time I could see the icon on my helmet, showing me where it was coming from, "I'll make it so you can get through there."

Finally I connected the voice to the owner, "If you say so Blister."

Behind me, Trudge kept yelling something about me driving towards a wall, but instead of listening, I sped up. Just as I got to the door, it exploded open.

Upon entering the shaft, I angled my runner so the impact would hurt the least when I got to the ground floor.

The idiot named Trudge followed me down, "I activate the spell, Rapid Shotwing. It adds 500 attack points to the monster of my choosing, and I choose Search Striker!"

**_Search Striker-2100_ **

His cackle was equivalent to metal on metal, "Next I have him attack you directly."

**_Life Points Yusei=1400_ **

The cackle grew in volume as we continued to fall past dozens of floors, "Now I have Pursuit Chaser attack you directly."

I smiled, "Exactly what I was hoping for. I activate my facedown card, Confusion Chaff. If I get attacked directly twice in a row, the second monster attacks the first instead of me."

My smile was so wide that it was hurting my face as I watched as the monsters battled, and Trudge's life points finally dropped.

**_Life Points Trudge=3300_ **

He glared at me as his monster disappeared, "I set one facedown before I end my turn."

**_Search Striker-1600_ **

Blister's voice came through again as I neared the ground floor, "Brace yourself Yusei."

Tilting my runner backwards, I hit the ground floor hard and the doors opened. I shot through just before they closed. I heard Trudge land behind me, but I let myself worry about that as I rushed towards the exit.

I shot forward only a few feet before he caught back up to me somehow. He crashed into me and started yelling in my face, "If I can't beat you, then I will find a way to make sure that you never get out of here!"

Suddenly, he was shoved away by someone else riding a runner. The rider came even with me and I saw who it was, "Blister, thanks for your help back there."

Trudge screamed from behind me, "This duel isn't over yet!"

Rolling my eyes openly, I continued the duel, "Then I summon Speed Warrior in attack mode."

**_Speed Warrior-900_ **

"And on his first turn..."

More laughter came from his stupid mouth, "I don't think so Satellite. I activate Power Bind, which not only prevents his points from going up, but actually puts them at 0 until your next turn."

Tilting my head, I activated my card, "Since you used a Speed Spell, I can activate Reactor Pod, which deals you Speed Warrior's original attack points as damage. Say goodbye to 900 life points."

**_Life Points Trudge=2400_ **

Every time he spoke, I wanted to rip my ears out, "My turn, Search Striker, take out his Speed Warrior!"

Before anything else could happen, I quietly activated Scrap-Iron Scarecrow. He immediately started yelling language that Martha would have not tolerated in her house.

It didn't take a genius to tell that he really wasn't happy with me now, "I activate Final Countdown. After I activate this spell, once per turn I set one card down, and when I remove this spell from play you take damage. 500 for two cards, 1500 for three, and 3000 for four. I set one card facedown and end my turn."

Drawing my next card, I started my turn, "Okay, Speed Warrior, I'm putting you in defense mode, and bringing out some backup. I summon Healing Wave Generator in defensive position."

**_Speed Warrior-400_ **

**_Healing Wave Generator-1600_ **

"Next I activate my Generator's special ability. I pick one monster that isn't it, and gain 100 life points for every level it has."

**_Life Points Yusei=1600_ **

As he drew his next card, a quiet chuckle came from Trudge, _Oh, that's just peachy_.

"I summon the tuner monster, Torapart and tune it with my Striker to create Goyo Guardian!"

**_Goyo Guardian-2800_ **

His voice somehow grew in volume, "Goyo, attack that Generator!"

"I activate Scrap-Iron-"

More laughter from him preceded a slight shock, "When Torapart is sent to the graveyard because of a Synchro summon, you can't activate traps for the first turn."

Some more non-Martha-approved words came through my head as my Generator was dragged to his side of the field. Fury built up inside of me as he laughed again, "I think I'll use it's special ability to gain 600 points."

**_Life Points Trudge=3000_ **

He was still very smug as he spoke, "I'll end my turn with a facedown."

My cards helped me out as I got the final card for my plan, "I summon Turbo Synchron to the field, which allows Quillbolt to return once again."

**_Turbo Synchron-100_ **

**_Quillbolt Hedgehog-800_ **

"Next my Turbo attacks Healing Wave Generator."

**_Life Points Yusei-100_ **

Trudge truly needed some intervention about his laughter problem, "Are you insane? Why would you ever do something so stupid?"

A smile spread over my face, "Turbo can't be destroyed in battle, and I can summon a monster with as many points as I just took as damage, such as my Sonic Chick."

_**Sonic Chick-300** _

"I now use the spell Urgent Tuning, which allows me to Synchro even if it's not the time for it. This allows me to bring out my Turbo Warrior."

**_Turbo Warrior-2500_ **

"And in case you didn't know, all level 6 or higher monsters that Turbo declares battle on have their points cut in half, but I'm not done there."

**_Goyo Guardian-1400_ **

"I activate Synchro Strike, which adds 500 points for every monster involved in his summon."

**_Turbo Warrior-4500_ **

"Turbo Warrior, take out Goyo Guardian!"

His monster shattered, and my spirits lifted.

**_Life Points Trudge=0 Defeat!_ **

Trudge slammed into me again, but almost instantly vanished from my side.

I shot free and glanced back, seeing Blister fall over with Trudge. He looked at me and mouthed, "Go, I'll be fine."

Nodding, I launched out of the building, shooting past countless Security agents, all with weapons armed with my 'new best friend', the tazing rod. As more and more electricity went into my system, my world went slowly black.

* * *


	12. Little Kids

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Waking up with two nearly identical faces staring you down makes for great confusion.

"I can't tell if they are a boy or a girl, can you?"

"No, but I doubt that the Security would throw a girl in the Facility."

"What gives you the idea that they've been to the Facility?"

"The yellow mark on their face. I learned that from my current events class."

"But I thought that the marks were about the size of a coin or a toothpick!"

My brain was trying to reboot, but I was so sore, that I was just lying there as two almost identical voices talked about me, not knowing that I had woken up.

"They typically are, my class never explained why they are all different sizes."

"Maybe they know why theirs is bigger than everyone else."

"I just hope that they wake up soon so we can ask."

"Yeah, they've been asleep for two days."

_ Wait, what? _

I started moving, and one of them squeaked. The other voice weakly giggled at the first one, and then stopped.

As I sat up and looked at my hosts, my brain was only more confused. One was clearly a girl, while the other one was a boy. My confusion was the fact that they were likely twins, and would be identical if they were the same gender.

Pushing aside my confusion I reached right for my deck, "How did I get here?"

The boy was putting on an act of being braver than the sister, "We brought you up here."

"You're heavy."

He looked at his sister, disappointed that she interrupted, "I'm Leo. This is my sister Luna."

Luna looked at me, "What's your name?"

I managed to stand up, despite all of the screaming muscles, "I'm not the kind of person that you want to befriend. This mark on my face? I didn't exactly get it by going to the store. The less you know about me, the better."

Leo ran over to me, "Come on! If I want to be a famous duelist like Jack Atlas, I need to duel more people than my sister!"

It was difficult to resist smiling at his enthusiasm, but instead, I crouched to his level, "What makes you want to duel me?"

A single finger pointed behind me, "You are a speed duelist like Jack."

Before my crash, I thought that the happiest I would be upon seeing Justice would be in the Security lockup. But seeing that I got her successfully away from Security made the sight of her even better.

My muscles heavily protested me talking over to Justice’s side, checking her over for any damage that could have happened when I crashed. As I crouched to check the side, Leo ran over to my side, "Are you in town to beat Jack?"

His mind going straight to that assumption was so surprising that I almost laughed, "No, just in town to do some business. Then I'm going back home."

"Then why do you have a runner?"

A chuckle managed to slip out of me, "Some people can't afford cars. Plus, I do like dueling at high speeds every once in a while."

Without any warning, he ran over to a shelf on a nearby wall. My eyes were drawn to what could only be described as a shrine for Jack, from which he grabbed an envelope. Racing back over to me, he handed the envelope to me, "Have you heard about this?"

Gently taking the envelope from him, I examined it. On the front was the words  _ Fortune Cup Invitation _ over a trophy _. _ Leo was bouncing as he watched me with excitement, "They asked me to duel in it!"

Luna once again interrupted, "They actually asked me."

He grimaced, stopped bouncing, shook his head, then started bouncing again, "I'm dueling because she said she didn't want to."

The more I watched their interactions, the more they both reminded me of both Rally and the Enforcers when we were a lot younger. I sighed, "I'll duel you, and if you win, I'll tell you my name."

Suddenly Luna turned to me, "Are you a boy or a girl?"

I smiled, "I'll tell you guys if he wins."

Pinching the envelope between my fingers, I flicked it back to the shrine, much to the awe of Leo.

Turning around, I got my duel disk out, and pulled out my foot deck. A noise behind me caused me to spin, revealing Leo wearing a full sized disk.

As my eyes registered the size of the runner, it slid down his arm as he jumped up and down.

Resigning myself to my fate, I looked towards Luna, "Where do you think that we should duel?"

She pointed at the window, “You would have more space if you did it outside. We get the whole floor to ourselves."

The three of us went outside where there was a pool big enough to drown Martha's whole house. Switching gears, I smiled to Luna, "Could you get me a really small towel?"

Before I could get another word out, she raced off, returning quickly with one nearly the exact size I needed. 

"Perfect, thank you. Leo, could you come over here?"

When he got close to me I put the towel under his duel disk for two reasons: to stop it from scraping him, and to keep it from moving as much, "That should work a little better than how it is now."

He shook it up and down, "Yeah, it doesn't move as much! Thanks!"

My smile was having a hard time disappearing with how cute these kids were, "You can even have the first turn."

"Yes!"

Leo ran a good distance away and then activated his duel disk, "My turn, and I summon Morphtronic Cellphon in attack mode!"

**_Morphtronic Cellphon-100_ **

Bouncing on the tips of his feet, he continued, "Next I activate his special ability, which chooses a random number, and I get to draw that many cards. If one is a monster level 3 or under, I can summon it."

The number three on the phone lit up and he hooted, "Yes, and one of the cards is a monster that I can summon in attack mode, Morphtronic Magnen!"

**_Morphtronic Magnen-800_ **

"Finally I put a card face down and end my turn."

I drew my next card, and then started the first round of likely the cutest duel I have been in since childhood, "I summon Speed Warrior in attack mode."

**_Speed Warrior-900_ **

Tilting my head, I smirked, "On his first turn, his attack points double. And I am going to attack your Magnen."

**_Speed Warrior-1800_ **

Just as my Warrior was about to destroy the Magnen, Leo smiled, "I activate my trap, Morph Transition. It stops your attack and changes my monster into defense mode."

**_Morphtronic Magnen-800_ **

Letting a smile out, I conceded, "Alright, then I end my turn, which means that Speed Warrior’s attack points drop back down."

**_Speed Warrior-900_ **

"My turn! I summon another Magnen in defense mode!"

**_Morphtronic Magnen-800_ **

Lines appeared between the two as Leo explained, "Since there are two in defense mode, you can't attack either. It's so cool!"

"Next I use my Cellphon's special ability! And it stopped on two!"

He drew his cards and cheered in excitement, "This card is so awesome! I summon Morphtronic Datatron!"

**_Morphtronic Datatron-1200_ **

"Then I activate my spell Gadget Box, which gives me one Gadget Token per turn!"

**_Gadget Token-0_ **

His voice grew in volume, "Now I use Datatron's special ability. If I send one monster to the graveyard, I can give you 500 points of damage. So I am going to send my Token to the graveyard. Go Datatron!"

**_Life Points Yusei-3500_ **

Leo started jumping up and down, yelling over to Luna, “You said that I would never be able to set this up in an actual duel! Look! I did it!”

She sat there like a queen, looking right at him, "Are you going to keep yelling, or are you going to end your turn soon?"

His face turned into a tomato as he muttered, "Sorry, I end my turn."

Yet another smile was fighting its way onto my face, "I send one card to the graveyard to use my Card Rotator spell card. It changes the mode of all of your monsters."

The smile disappeared from his face, "What?"

**_Morphtronic Magnen-800 (attack)_ **

**_Morphtronic Magnen-800 (attack)_ **

**_Morphtronic Cellphon-600 (defense)_ **

**_Morphtronic Datatron-600 (defense)_ **

"Next, I summon Junk Synchron in attack mode."

**_Junk Synchron-1300_ **

Checking my hand, I continued, "Junk Synchron’s special ability brings back a low level monster from the graveyard, so here comes Nitro Synchron again."

Leo interrupted in a panic, "This means you can summon a level 7 monster!"

Luna was about to protest when I spoke, "You are halfway right. But it is going to take a little extra step or two. You can't use two tuners at once. So first I tune my Speed Warrior with my Junk Synchron to create Junk Warrior."

**_Junk Warrior-2300_ **

“After that, I tune Junk Warrior with Nitro Synchron to create Nitro Warrior."

**_Nitro Warrior-2800_ **

Leo seemed to wilt in front of Nitro Warrior, I almost wanted to stop.  _ Almost _ , "Now I am going to have my Warrior attack your Magnen on the left."

**_Life Points Leo-2000_ **

"I am sorry Leo, but if my Warrior successfully destroys one monster, he can force another into attack mode and attack that one too. He's going to attack your Cellphon."

**_Life Points Leo-0 Defeat!_ **

Tears started flowing down Leo’s face, breaking my heart. I walked forward, kneeling in front of him, "Hey, it's okay Leo, everyone loses. I even heard that Jack lost pretty recently off record. If it makes you feel better, I can stay the night, I just can't tell you my name."

Luna helped Leo wipe the tears of his face. Once that happened, Leo smiled up at me, “Thanks!”

Hours later they were both in bed, leaving me to pull out my tool box in order to work on a small project.

_ It’s the least I can do to pay them back for their hospitality, especially since they took in a marked person who crashed in an alleyway under their house.  _

Taking apart their cute little duel disks was something that any child in Satellite could have done, but the next part was more difficult.

Neatly lining out all of the extra pieces, I carefully put a smaller version together from the pieces I took apart. Once again, memories flooded back of Rally, and when I had done this exact same thing for her.

Silently, I cleaned up, packed my tools away and rolled my runner out.

_ I need to go, my staying will only endanger them. _

The elevator doors slid open, and I pushed Justice out just enough for me to get back on. Revving my engine to check the sound, I then picked my foot up and launched out of the shelter of the garages.

Only about five or six blocks passed before my side got rammed violently.

"Hello again Officer."

No words could accurately describe how much I hated his laugh, “I knew you would have to come out sooner or later. Are you ready to duel me again?”

“I’m definitely ready to beat you again.”

We both stopped in an intersection, ready to duel again. Bright lights came on in front of us with absolutely no warning, ripping away my vision for a good couple seconds. A man who looked more like a clown walked toward us, "Officer Trudge, you don't have the clearance to be here. Please leave or risk losing your job."

He grimaced, "Who are you?"

No living being should be able to pull off the smile he sent to Trudge, "Director Goodwin's personal assistant."

Without any further argument, Trudge grunted and drove away, making me immediately go on guard, "What do you want?"

The purple haired freak bowed, "I am Lazar. Director Goodwin would like for me to give you this."

I took it from him, and looked at the familiar looking envelope. My eyes connected with his as I lowered my voice, "And what if I don't want to?"

He pointed at the envelope that I was holding in my hand, "Then everyone in the picture that you are holding will be punished for all of your crimes."

Flipping over the envelope revealed a photograph, which showed me the friends that I was trying so hard to get back to talking to each other, oblivious that someone was watching them. I glared at him, "Fine. But the second I'm out of this tournament they better be back at our place."


	13. Many Many Questions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It turns out that everyone that Yusei runs into has questions, even her.

The second that the car with the clown vanished out of eyesight, Blister emerged from the shadows, "I was wondering when you'd come out of there. That cop had the block surrounded for days, mostly because the guards for the Tops wouldn't let them in."

"The Tops?"

He waved his hand, "I'll explain once we get you to a safe location. Any second one of that cop's lackeys could show up."

"Are we going back to your HQ?"

"No. I rounded up a place for you to stay. That way we can both have our space."

I nodded, "That works for me. Do I have to pay you for it?"

Blister shook his head as he got on his runner, "I feel like it's my fault all of this happened, so it's free. Come on, it's this way."

* * *

We pulled to a stop in an alley next to a row of garages, and Blister grabbed the bottom of one, pulling it open, "I'd normally say 'hope you don't mind the rats', but I doubt that rats would bother you."

I pushed my runner into the garage, and Blister followed me in, "It's pretty small for a city place, but it has all the necessities. Running hot and cold water, toilet, pathetically small shower, a place to crash."

My eyes locked on him in surprise, "This place has a shower?"

He seemed taken aback by my interest, "Yeah, in the bathroom back there. Why are you so surprised?"

"In Satellite, you are lucky if your water is green instead of black. I don't think I've had a shower in...three months?"

Blister nodded, "So you are probably going to use it the second I leave. Anyway, what did that freakish thing tell you to get in the contest?"

Flicking the picture at him, I started working on my runner, "If I don't duel Jack, they all get put in the Facility instead of me."

After glancing at it for a minute or two, he put it down next to me, "I'm on it."

With that, he left, and just like he guessed, I went straight to the bathroom to investigate.

It was fully stocked.

For a good few minutes I just stared, before rushing back out to my runner. From under the seat I pulled out a change of clothes before rushing back to the bathroom.

Once my body was finally free of all of the grime, I put on the 'clean' clothes, and found some laundry soap. After one glance at the object I assumed was a washing machine, I scrubbed my clothes out in the bathtub. My boots, and gloves were cleaned off with a damp rag and left out to dry.

I also used this chance to look at my face, more importantly, on the newest mark on my face. One thing I liked about it was how it somehow made my face look tougher. Part of me was hoping that it would push my androgyny further toward the masculine side, so people wouldn't know about the truth about me.

My eyes went to my hair next, and my hands tried to spike it up. A mixture of water and gravity kept it clinging to my shoulders.

_Dang it! Hopefully it will dry before Blister gets back._

Searching through my bag, I yanked out a headband, using it to push the hair out of my face. With that out of the way, I started to work on my runner, fixing what was damaged in the crash.

* * *

After two hours, my hair was finally standing up without help, and my runner was almost back to full power. I revved the engine to see how well it was meshing with the other parts when I heard Blister's voice behind me, "One second, can't hear you."

I was powering down my runner when Yunagi jumped into view yelling something in my face. I shut off Justice, "What on..."

Tanner walked over, "We got released this morning. Sweet ride."

A smile entered my face, "Thanks. Named it Justice."

He held out his deck, "I got my deck back, how about we duel to see how good you are with your own deck?"

Chuckling, I stood up, "Why not?"

Donning my jacket, shoes and gloves again, I disengaged my disk and grabbed the deck for foot duels, "Blister, you know this area better than any of us. Where can we duel?"

"There's a place just around the corner."

Blister led us to a nearby vacant lot, where he and Yunagi stood on the side. As we were getting ready to start our duel, we all heard a runner approaching us.

The High-Speed Ferris Wheel turned the corner and came to a stop between Tanner and I. Jack got off and I sighed, "Well Jack, what brings the so-called King of the Duels to the slums of his mighty city?"

He launched a card directly at my face and I barely managed to catch it before it cut my nose. I looked at Stardust's card for the first time in two years, and looked at my former 'brother', "And why are you giving this to me?"

Jack wasn't looking too happy, "We both know that I never break a promise. Since the duel was never officially finished, I'm loaning this to you. You beat me in the Cup, you get to keep it for as long as you would like. I keep my title, I get the card back and everything is settled."

"If this is encouragement to participate, you're already too late. Some guy named Lazar told me that my friends will all be sent to the Facility if I don't do what they want me to. Clear that up, and I might just actually try during the duel."

His face darkened further, "I may have no fondness for those friends of yours, but I still owe you for what happened back then. I'll do my best."

Just as he sat down on his runner, he turned to me, "And Yusei? How long can you keep this mask of yours on?"

I shrugged, "As long as I possibly can."

The runner shot off and they all came to me, Yunagi yelling extremely loud, "What card did he give to you?"

Gently turning around Stardust, I showed them, "A card he borrowed from me a couple years back."

Before Yunagi could keep talking, Blister spoke up, "What did he mean 'keep your mask on'?"

Yunagi piped up, "That is one of the Signer dragons!"

I sighed, "Yunagi, we aren't sure if I'm a Signer or not. And Blister? I'd rather not answer your question in public."

Switching gears, I lifted up my duel disk, "You ready Tanner?"

* * *

We were in the garage after I beat Tanner before Blister asked again, "What charade are you keeping up?"

Rather than tell them, I simply brushed my hair down. Rather than spiking, my hair flowed down my back like a waterfall.

All three of them looked at me in complete shock. Even Yunagi was dead silent.

I laughed as I shook my head rapidly, causing my hair to go back up, "That's right. I was born a girl, but in Satellite girls are targeted more than guys, so I grew up disguised as a guy."

Blister was the first to recover, "How did you hide that so well?"

"Years of practice. I only grew up with guys, so I learned how to act like them. Plus I had a hard time getting nutrients that I needed, so I stopped growing around the time I was thirteen. I'd appreciate it if we changed subjects now."

Tanner smiled as he slapped my back, "No problem."

Almost instantly Yunagi was in my face, "How about how you are a Signer?"

"I am not a Signer."

We headed back outside, Yunagi refusing to let the subject go, "But you summoned the Crimson Dragon."

"Remember, I wasn't alone in the stadium that night. Jack was the one dueling me."

All three of them came to a dead stop, and Tanner asked the inevitable question, "Why did you come to the city?"

Together we wandered to the local dueling corts as I answered as carefully as I could, "A group of us promised when we were younger that we would always respect each other's choices, and we would never mess with each other's decks. Then one day Jack decided that the rest of us were complete losers because we didn't have the same ambitions that he did. He called us losers and next thing I knew, he nearly killed one of my other friends just so he could steal my first runner and Stardust. I came to get Stardust back."

Blister asked the one question I always dreaded hearing, "Did you two ever date?"

Gagging, I stared him down, "He's basically my brother. I wouldn't date him if he was the last guy on earth."

A familiar voice echoed across the area, "Hey, it's you again!"

I looked toward the voice and saw Leo running toward me with someone in tow, "Hey Leo, where is Luna?"

"She didn't want to come out today. Thanks for fixing my duel disk!"

Once again he brought a smile to my face, "You're welcome Leo. Did Luna like hers as well?"

He nodded, gesturing to the person next to him, "This is my best buddy Dexter."

For a couple seconds, it felt that my mouth opening caused the world to explode. My arm burned once again, and I was struggling to stay on my feet as I looked for what had caused the world to turn to chaos. The dust settled down just enough for the silhouette of a person and their dragon to be seen.

But what really drew my attention was the glowing mark on their right arm.

My friends came to my side as I removed the glove, revealing the triangular mark on my arm. Yunagi whispered, "That is one of the Signer marks."

"Okay, so now I can't deny it. But what about the person over there?"

Blister was speaking in shock, "I think that's the Black Rose Witch. She makes cards come to life."

_So she's like me. Someone else who has unexplainable powers._

I took a step towards her, but the wave of fear that came from her was so strong that I had to stop. Before I could keep going to her, she disappeared in another cloud of smoke. As she left, my mark stopped glowing, taking the pain away and letting me stand upright again.

While the dust was still settling, I walked over to Leo and crouched next to him, "Are you alright, Leo?"

He nodded, "I think so."

I looked him in the eye, "Then go home. I'll see you tomorrow."

Confusion came in equal parts from his face and his emotions, "Why am I going to see you tomorrow?"

An invitation was pulled out from my jacket, "I got an invitation as well."

Leo hugged me in glee, then hurried off with his friend, both whispering conspiratorially. I headed back to the garage with the men. Blister started talking, "I found someone to smuggle me into the Satellite. Tanner and the old man can stay at my place."

Tanner nodded, "Since we can't all stay in the same place, sounds like a good idea."

Popping my back, I nodded, "Then I better get sleep before tomorrow."


	14. Now Time for the Fortune Cup

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Time for the Fortune Cup! But not everyone in the city is as friendly as the twins.

An alarm clock that Blister had left for me jolted me out of sleep, and I rolled off the cot while shutting it off. Glancing around the room with the silenced alarm clock in my hands, I chuckled, _It's kinda sad that this is probably the nicest place I've stayed in years._

I changed in the bathroom into the clean clothes from the day before, once again peering at my reflection while fixing my hair, _This mark screams 'I'm a Satellite who breaks laws'. Makeup would really be useful about now._

Splashing water on my face, I put the rest of my outfit on, then headed out to my runner. I wheeled it out into the alleyway, shut the garage as quietly as I could before navigating back to the stadium that had cursed me.

After a lengthy trip, I pulled up at the duelist entrance. The guard took one look at me before holding his hand out. Without hesitation, I gave him the invitation, which he studied for a minute or two. Leaving me with my thoughts, which was never a good idea, I'm glad that my helmet mostly covers the mark. Otherwise I'd probably not get into this event.

Finally he handed it back to me with a grunt, "Garages are down the hallway on your right."

Going slowly, I entered the building before getting off and pushing her. Following the directions wasn't hard with all of the signs, and I ended up in a group of ten lockers. One directly next to the door had an intricate lock on it, prompting me to go to the furthest one away from it in order to avoid the owner.

Looking around the one I picked, I put my helmet down on the tool bench before figuring out the locking system. Once Justice was secured in the one I chose, I followed the signs leading us to the starting point. Near the door that led to where the other duelists were I found the twins who had already bumped into Yunagi and Tanner. I bit back a smile as I looked at Leo, "Hey everyone."

Luna was wearing a coat and hat to hide that she was the real duelist, while Leo was dressed in her clothes with makeup on. I finally couldn't hold back a chuckle, let alone a smile, "Trust me Leo, the makeup is overkill. You are young enough that no one is going to think you are a guy."

He looked up at me, "Are you sure?"

"Most girls I've met normally don't wear makeup until they turn 13 at the least."

Pausing for a second, he then nodded sagely, "Okay...do you know how to get makeup off?"

Out of the corner of my eye I could see that my two friends who knew about my gender were trying to not laugh, "I think soap and water will work. But I don't exactly know, I've never worn any."

* * *

After Leo had gone into the bathroom to wash off the makeup with Luna's help (in the girls' bathroom to his eternal shame) we headed to the place where the platform was. The other duelists were all waiting there, and I could see a couple looking...glaring actually, at my mark. Shoving them all out of my mind, I stood in my assigned place on the far right end, with Leo standing between me and the other duelists (to my relief).

Before things could get awkward, I heard someone's voice yelling things above us. After about a minute of this, the platform started rising. The roar of the crowd was surprisingly loud, making me beyond grateful that my helmet was insulated to block out sound. It also made me wish that I was wearing my helmet right at that very second. The announcer called out our names, "Aki Izayoi, Commander Corta, the Professor, Bommer Geiger, Shira, Sir Ransborg, Luna, and Yusei Fudo."

Despite the applause that had happened as we were raised up, there was silence for a few seconds after my name was announced. When the silence was over, it was replaced by jeers and booing.

Leo looked up at me, "Your name is Yusei?"

"Yup."

"Why are they booing?"

I sighed, "Big marks mean that the person is a Satellite."

His small face was filled with his eyes, "You are from Satellite?"

"Yes I am. And they don't like that fact."

Our conversation didn't get much further before the biggest one of the other duelists walked forward and took the microphone away from the announcer, "I pity the fact that none of you are duelists. As duelists we see each other in light of how we treat our cards and each other. We respect each other no matter what until we are given a proper reason to not. Birthplace is not a proper reason, so he will have my respect until he loses it."

He marched back to his spot and tossed the microphone back to the announcer as Goodwin stood up. Apparently aiming to be dramatic, he spread his arms wide, "That is exactly why I organized this tournament. I wanted for everyone to forget about differences in position, age, gender and just become equal just as the duelists are."

Goodwin waved his hand and the bracket showed up on the screen;

_Duel 1: Luna vs. B. Geiger_

_Duel 2: A. Izayoi vs. Sir Ransborg_

_Duel 3: C. Corta vs. Professor_

_Duel 4: Y. Fudo vs. Shira_

With that, all of the other duelists went downstairs, leaving Leo and I to follow them. A worker was waiting for Leo, "I'll show you to where you need to be, Miss Luna."

Both of us followed her, and I stayed with Leo as we waited for the duel, "Remember, you are not dueling for yourself. This is a duel for your sister. You need to keep your peppiness under control, because that's not how she acts, okay?"

"I got this in the bag!"

_Sure you do. And I'm a unicorn._

The announcer's voice came through, "Is everyone ready for our very first duel?"

Giving Leo two thumbs up, I backed up, "Break a leg out there!"

"Thanks Yusei!"

He rose up, and out of sight. Sighing one last time, I went to the duelist lounge and sat down to watch the duel with the other participants.


	15. Odd Questions

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yusei gets a cold welcome to the tournament, and gets asked a lot of questions.

To say that I wasn’t surprised when Leo lost was an understatement. I got up from the couch, and started walking towards the exit to the dueling field.

A strong smelling liquid poured over my head, onto my shoulders, and thankfully rolling off my jacket. I watched as one of the other duelists strolled off, muttering under my breath as I walked towards the bathrooms.

"Why didn't you fight back?"

I glanced up to see the girl looking at me in curiosity, “Satellites have different laws than city people. In fact, the cops back home are probably going to jump me soon as I get back home for owning both a deck and a duel disk. I don’t even want to know what they’ll do to me for owning a runner.”

Aki seemed taken aback by my comments, "That doesn't mean that you should just put up with it."

I looked her in the eyes, "If I fight back, I go straight back to the Facility. And plus I don't have telekinesis like a certain other person."

She jumped, "How did you..."

"You have the same build, same hair color, and you touch your arm every time you see me. The woman arriving caused my arm to burn, so it wasn’t that much of a stretch that hers did as well."

Her eyes scanned over me, and she rubbed her arm again, "By the way, I can't believe that people believe you are a guy."

A smile slipped onto my face, "Most girls don't dress or act like me, yourself included. And then there's the fact that I'm the only one with my name, making it so no one knows what gender it belongs to. So most of the time they just assume that I am a man."

Just then I heard footsteps approaching. I looked over and saw Dexter and Luna trying to console Leo, "Come on Leo, every time you lose you have a chance to learn so much."

He looked at me, "Just don't lose your duel Yusei. We want to see you win."

I ruffled Leo’s hair, "I promise that I will do my best. I can't promise more than that. The one who is going to win is the one who understands their deck best."

To my complete surprise, Aki nodded as she spoke, "True. Your win streak is higher when you have an alliance with your deck."

She looked at a nearby clock, "Thank you for talking with me Yusei. But I must get to the arena now."

"Be careful, okay? I have a feeling that these people want us riled up for some reason."

With a single nod, she walked away. I turned to the kids, "I need to clean up really quick, but you better get to the stands."

All three of them hurried off as I went to my garage and quickly got rid of the soda in my hair thanks to the sink in the garage. As my hair dried I sat down to watch her duel alone. 

It was very impressive to see her beat the cosplaying knight without her dragon. But I was most impressed by the fact that he was clearly trying to break her, likely at the orders of the puppetmaster named Goodwin.

My focus went back to my runner, only to be disrupted by the door opening. Aki slipped in, rubbing her arm, “Do people just trust you the first time that they meet you?”

Glancing up, I paused, "Now that you mention it, people have done it for my whole life. Even the people who raised me would treat me like I was much older than I was."

Aki looked at me, "Can you feel what other people feel?"

I had to think about that for a second, "I guess that I always have."

She leaned against the wall, "Then it makes sense. You're an empath."

My eyes looked at hers, "What on earth is an empath?"

One of her eyebrows went up, "Someone who can feel the emotions of others. They also are completely genuine, so everyone feels like they are safe talking to them."

"Does that mean that it's a power like your telekinesis?"

She nodded, "How do you know about telekinesis but not empathy?"

I gave her a pointed look, "There are actually quite a few people with telekinesis in Satellite. We all learned that they are humans that are just like the rest of us...as long as they are in control of their temper."

Next came a question I wasn't expecting, "How do you control your powers?"

Thinking about it, "I just accept that I have them and move on with my life. At first, when I worried about it, I could feel way too many emotions. But once I calmed down about them, my powers calmed down."

Aki sat on the ground next to me, "I never wanted these powers."

I shot her a look, "No one with a brain does. But you did well at controlling them today, regardless of how hard he tried to make you lose control."

"Thanks, it wasn’t easy."

An alert went off, telling me that the last duel was over, "Sorry Aki. I need to get ready for my duel now."

She nodded, "Yusei?"

Glancing over at her, I paused, "Yeah, what is it?"

"How can you tell if someone is your friend?"

I smiled at her, "If they put your needs before their own or always support you, even if you mess up big time. Their love towards you is unconditional."

She left, and I could feel her worry was growing as she went away.  _ I wonder what is making her so upset that she came here to talk with me. _


	16. Predictable Duel Turns Unpredictable

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yusei goes into a duel with one of Goodwin's men, and ends up dueling someone completely different.

Rolling my runner up to the entrance tunnel, I waited for the announcer’s voice to start. Around me milled a group of people in identical clothing, each with something in their right ears. 

After a while, a voice came deafeningly through my headset, “Ladies and gentlemen, are you ready for the first turbo duel of the tournament? Give it up for our Satellite underdog, Yusei Fudo!"

If I had thought that the announcer was deafening, it did not compare to the booing of the crowd as I emerged from the pit and drove to the starting line. For a crowd of people who likely had never met a Satellite before, their reaction was far from surprising.

Pulling to a stop at the line, I took a deep breath,  _ No losing control of my temper. I am the first Satellite that many of these people would ever see. I need to represent every single one of us. _

For a couple of seconds, I wondered if my opponent was even going to show up before the irritating announcer’s voice came out again, equally as deafening, "As for his opponent, put your cards together for Shira, the Shadow Reaper!"

Once again, my habit of rolling my eyes emerged while he pulled up next to me,  _ Why do people go by stage names like that? _

In front of both of us, a hologram showed up. As it started counting down, I prepared myself for a duel that was not likely going to be easy. Rex Goodwin had a reason for me being here, and I doubted that he would make it easy for me to get back to face Jack.

Simultaneously, the timer hit 0, and a large beep echoed throughout the stadium. Justice and I launched forward as the cloak flew off of my opponent, revealing a man who had previously dueled Jack. I had only caught the end of the duel, so I never learned his name.

Thankfully, Mr Very Loud Announcer knew his name, "It looks like Enjo Hikamara is aiming to get back at Jack Atlas!"

‘Enjo’ looked me in the eye, "I heard from somebody that you beat Jack. Think you can beat me?"

I smirked at him, "Sure, I thought that this duel was going to be boring."

Mr Very Loud and Annoying Announcer spoke up, “This wasn’t quite what we were expecting…but it looks like the Director is giving it a green light!” 

Without a second of hesitation, Enjo launched himself into the duel, "I summon my Flaming Skull in attack mode and place three facedowns."

**_Flaming Skullhead-1000_ **

_ If he is going to be similar to how he dueled Jack, then I am going to go at 70%. I don’t want to draw any more attention to myself than necessary. _

Glancing at my hand, I plopped down a well known card, "I summon my Speed Warrior in attack mode as well."

**_Speed Warrior-900_ **

Instinctually, I opened my mouth to explain his effect when I was interrupted by the announcer, “Speed Warrior’s attack points double for the first round that he is out on the field.”

**_Speed Warrior-1800_ **

Enjo sent a smirk to me, "I activate Zero Guard which lowers my monster’s points to 0 but makes him indestructible in battle."

**_Flaming Skullhead-0_ **

_ As long as you accept the fact that you are going to take a whole lot of damage anyways. _

“Speed Warrior, attack his Flaming Skullhead!”

**_Life Points Enjo=2200_ **

Despite his life points dropping, his speed counters actually rose. Before I could even open my mouth, he started talking, "I activate my Doom Accelerator trap, which adds a speed counter for every 500 points of damage I just took. So I now have four speed counters."

Rolling my eyes didn't do me any good, but it made me feel better as I lay two facedowns before ending my turn, “As I end my turn, Speed Warrior’s points returns to normal.”

**_Speed Warrior-900_ **

Yet again Enjo started his turn with a spell, "I use Summon Speeder to bring Skull Base to my field."

**_Skull Base-800_ **

_ What a pity that I put down Slipstream. It’s even more of a pity that you are talking too much for me to say anything when I activate it. _

I was mildly surprised when not even the announcer noticed me activating it, but I just waited for Enjo to stop talking so I could mention what I had done.

"Next I tune my monsters together to great Skull Flame."

**_Skull Flame-2600_ **

Once again, a man that I was dueling started to cackle like a maniac, "I think my monster is going to attack yours now."

**_Life Points Yusei=2300_ **

"Then I activate Speed Booster, which has two effects. It negates as many attack as the difference in our speed counters, and it deals you damage equal to the difference in our counters times 100."

_ So I get to take 400 points of damage. That’s just great. _

**_Life Points Yusei=1900_ **

He ended his turn and continued laughing, "I'm going so fast that you can't possibly keep up with me-"

Mid-sentence, he dead stopped as he saw me next to him, finally leaving me a chance to talk, "Enjo, you might want to look at your screen more often."

Quickly glancing down, his eyes went wide, "When did you activate Slipstream?"

"When you activated Summon Speeder."

Yet another laugh erupted out of him, "Using that spell allows me to activate my Acceleration Zone. If you gain speed counters in a way different than the usual way I gain five speed counters."

A smile curled in the corner of my face, "If you feel the need to do so. I am going to use Summon Speeder myself to summon Quillbolt Hedgehog in defensive mode."

**_Quillbolt Hedgehog-800_ **

"Next, I normal summon Junk Synchron."

**_Junk Synchron-1300_ **

"Once he is on the field, I use his special ability which lets me bring a monster back from my graveyard. Say hello again to Speed Warrior."

**_Speed Warrior-900_ **

“As you could likely predict, I am going to Synchro summon Junk Warrior through Speed Warrior and Junk Synchron.”

**_Junk Warrior-2300_ **

“If Junk Warrior is on the field with another monster, his special ability allows him to borrow the attack points of any other monster on my side of the field.”

**_Junk Warrior-3100_ **

“Junk Warrior is now going to attack Skull Flame-”

Enjo’s cackle nearly deafened me through the headset, "In case you forgot, I can negate as many attacks as the difference between our speed counters."

I let out a sigh, "Fine then, I place one facedown and end my turn."

He clearly didn’t have a ‘quiet’ setting with his voice as he loudly proclaimed his moves, "I now use Accelerate Draw which lets me draw two cards, and I'm going to use one of them right away. End of Storm!"

Even more cackles came from him as he continued, "You should know what this does. It destroys every monster on either side of the field and the owner gets 300 points of damage for each!"

**_Life Points Yusei=1300_ **

**_Life Points Enjo=1900_ **

"Then I send one Flaming Skullhead out of play in order to special summon my Skull King!"

**_Skull King-3000_ **

As his cockiness grew, so did my hidden smirk. And he finally made the crucial mistake I was waiting for, “Attack Yusei directly!”

"Well, then it’s just a pity that I am going to activate my Scrap-Iron Scarecrow."

His face grew dark, "Then I use the ability of my Speed Booster, which gives you 500 points of damage."

**_Life Points Yusei=800_ **

"Then I activate my monsters ability which deals 400 points of damage to you for every Flaming Skullhead in my graveyard, which is one!"

**_Life Points Yusei=400_ **

I rolled my eyes, and then caught myself before speaking, "I use the speed spell Shift Down, which lowers my speed counters by five to allow me to draw two cards. One of those cards is Nitro Synchron, which I will summon right now."

**_Nitro Synchron-300_ **

"Whenever I have a tuner monster on my field I can summon Quillbolt back from the graveyard in defensive mode."

**_Quillbolt Hedgehog-800_ **

"Next I activate my Give and Take spell, which allows me to summon a monster from my graveyard to your field, and give that monster's level to a monster on my field. So you get Junk Synchron and my Quillbolt becomes a level 5."

**_Junk Synchron-500_ **

"My next step is not going to be a shock. I am going to tune my Quillbolt with my Synchron in order to summon my Nitro Warrior."

**_Nitro Warrior-2800_ **

“Since I haven’t drawn a card yet, I am going to do so.”

Upon drawing the next card I saw the one I had been looking for, "I activate Gap Storm, which destroys all spells on the field if the difference in our counters is ten or more. And since I activated a speed spell on the turn that I summoned Nitro Warrior, his attack points go up by 1000."

**_Nitro Warrior-3800_ **

"Nitro Warrior is going to take out Skull King."

**_Life Points Enjo=1100_ **

"After successfully destroying a monster, my Nitro's special ability activates, which changes one of your monsters from defense to attack mode. Then my monster can attack that monster. You only have Junk Synchron, so he’s my target!"

**_Junk Synchron-1300_ **

"Now take out the rest of his life points!"

**_Life Points Enjo=0 Defeat!_ **

I slowly pulled up next to him, "Nice duel."

He laughed from his place on the asphalt, "Don't think I will take this defeat sitting down...probably should have stood up before saying that."

A chuckle slipped out of my mouth, "Probably."


	17. Quite a Unique Duel

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Luna gets dragged into a duel against her will, and things turn from suspicious to insane.

I left Enjo on the ground, and drove back to my garage. The second the door slid shut I grabbed my tools and started tinkering on Justice to make sure that she was still running at full capacity.

A few minutes after I got back, the door opened and Aki walked in, "Yusei? How good is your empathy?"

"Moderately good. Why the sudden interest?"

Nervousness spread over her face, "I just thought that everyone with powers were like the people in the Movement, but lately I've been feeling like something is wrong with the leader of the Movement. I’ve been ignoring it, but then I met you. The only way to find out if someone IS wrong with him though..."

I started to connect the dots, and nodded, "Is for someone with my talent to find out what they are feeling. How will I know who it is?"

"His name is Sayer Divine. He has brown hair and a toupee."

Putting my tools away, I stood up, "Lead the way."

Together we headed to the area that the other duelists hung out in. We hadn't gotten far when the stupid purple clown showed up, "Director Goodwin would like to talk with you Miss Izayoi."

She opened her mouth but someone else spoke, "I'm afraid that Aki isn't interested."

Chills ran up my spine while I slowly turned around to see a man who matched her description. Before my mind could make a conscious decision, my body reacted to the signals that I was picking up on with my empathy.

Or in other words, I turned around again, and quickly walked away as Aki chased after me, "Yusei!"

My legs didn’t stop their quick retreat until I got back to the garage with Aki trailing behind me, and I plopped down on the ground, “Sorry about that. Could you close the door?”

“Yeah, sure. As long as you tell me what that was.”

Taking a few deep breaths, I spoke right after the door closed, “I have never, in my entire life, felt that in danger from a person. Keep in mind that I grew up in the Satellite, where Sector Security would dump convicted criminals. Being around that guy literally felt like I was drowning. He is so...I would say obsessed? Yeah, he’s obsessed with power, and I didn’t feel any compassion coming from him. I would not ever suggest going near him again.”

Aki joined me on the ground, "I had a feeling that was going to happen. Good thing I hid my deck and duel disk here when you were dueling."

I smiled at her, “Good thinking. I’m going to need a few minutes to get my breath back from that.”

We turned on the screen just in time to hear the announcer talking, "One set of duelists who previously lost will get a chance to duel one more time to get back into the tournament!"

Aki and I exchanged looks, "This can't be good."

For a minute, she paused, glaring at her arm before speaking again, "Have you seen her arm glow? The little girl? I mean, both of us were invited to the competition and our arms glow sometimes."

I shook my head, "Not yet, but I haven't known her for very long and she's pretty reserved. Even more than I am on a bad day. But I know that JACK has always had a red tattoo on his right arm and that it glowed last time we dueled each other."

She stared at me in shock, "You mean the Jack that is also in this tournament, as in Jack Atlas?"

“The one and only. Don’t tell anyone, but he’s not a city boy.”

Just then the announcer yelled out, "Looks like our duelists will be the Professor and Miss Luna!"

I muttered quietly to both of us, "How did we guess that they would be after her?"

At first, the duel seemed odd, but I brushed it off,  _ I’m a paranoid person, so my concern is probably just because of how the duel was forced. _

But that thought was blown out of the water as the duel progressed, “Something is wrong with Luna.”

Aki nodded from her spot on the ground, "You better go check on her to make sure she's okay."

I rolled to my feet and rushed to the dueling arena, flying up the stairs at an unearthly speed. Pulling to a stop at the top I could now see what wasn’t making it through the cameras.

Both Luna and her opponent, a man who called himself ‘The Professor’ (not an ominous sounding name at all), stared blankly at each other with no emotion.

Carefully, I reached out to feel what was going on. Luna was feeling terrified and confused, while he had the most cockiness that I had ever felt from anyone, and I knew Jack.

Letting go, I felt a feeling creeping through my arms that was getting to be way too familiar. Glancing down I didn’t see any light, so I brushed the pain out of my mind.

The rules stated that when a duel was occurring, no one besides the duelists could be on the field. That left me staying on the stairs, helpless to do anything. I quietly watched as they both dueled with absolutely no emotion in their voices, while the duel was actually quite heated. There was no doubt that Luna was no amateur like her brother, but it was equally obvious that she hadn't dueled in a long time.

A wave of emotion swept out from Luna, and suddenly her attacks grew in intensity. I watched in relief as she destroyed all of the spells on the field and took control of the duel, wiping out both of their life points completely. The Professor collapsed to the ground, and I raced to Luna’s side.

While I skidded to a stop next to her, she also collapsed. By a stroke of luck, she fell right into my arms, making it super easy to scoop her up. As I carried her away from the duel, I watched a glowing mark on her arm slowly fade away. Once it was completely gone, she started stirring.

We were almost to the stairs when her eyes opened, "Can you put me down?"

I gently set her on the ground, "Are you sure you're alright?"

She nodded and started waving at the crowd, who were cheering her name. I escorted her off the field and down the stairs, "Luna, it would probably be a good idea for you to not go anywhere without an adult for a while. So I need you to go with me to the garage for a little bit."

"Sure, but why?"

Ruffling her hair, I grimaced, "That mark on your arm is the reason you are in the tournament. The Security Bureau is after people with those marks."

Luna looked at me, "Okay. Is it because I can travel to the spirit world?"

Hiding my surprise as best I could, I nodded, "Probably."

We walked into the garage, where Aki was waiting, "What happened?"

I gestured to Luna, "She got the cool power. She accidentally teleported to the spirit world."

Our little fairy looked a little confused, "You two know each other?"

Shrugging, I smiled, "Kind of. My power is that I can tell if someone is trustworthy or not. A side effect of that ability is people always will trust me."

“Your cards told me that you help people. Can we go check on Leo? I’m worried that he might do something stupid if I’m not there to stop him.”


	18. REALLY Big Runner

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yusei gets a chance to duel Geiger, but thinking is hard next to a deafening roar.

As the three of us ladies headed out of the garage, we ran into Leo, who was trying to peek through the door of the nearby locked garage. Without pausing, I grabbed his shoulder and dragged him to the stairs, "Come on shortstop. We are all going back to your house TOGETHER."

He attempted to escape my grasp, prompting me to kneel down in front of him, “Leo. Can you explain to me why looking in someone else’s garage is more important than eating dinner?”

I had to admit that since coming to the city I enjoyed having multiple meals a day, so the fact that a tween boy didn't want food was concerning to me.

Leo’s entire face went red as I stared him down. He continued to squirm, before finally he muttered barley within an audible range, "I wanted to see what your opponent's runner looked like."

“It doesn’t matter what his runner looks like. The only thing that matters is how well he duels, and I have gotten a glimpse at that when he dueled you. Why would I need to see what his runner looks like? Let’s just go home and eat.”

The two of them rode home in a taxi with Aki, while I took my runner back to their penthouse. To the twins eternal credit, neither of them asked why Aki was coming back with us.

When I got back, the only question came from Leo, who jumped right in front of me, “Yusei?”

I walked around him to the kitchen, and started getting food ready to cook, "What's up?"

"Are you a guy or a girl?"

My face broke into a smile, “I am a female.”

Leo turned to Luna for a translation, and simply received, “Girl.”

He exploded, "I'm living with three girls?"

The three of us exploded into laughter, and I calmed down enough to speak, "Yes. But if it makes you feel better I act more like a guy than a girl."

Leo shrugged, "I guess, but you are still a girl."

The next morning, Tanner and Yunagi showed up to take the twins via taxi while Aki and I got ready for our duels. Once we were both ready, we got our invitations and got on the runner. As we were figuring out how to fit both of us on it, my call alert went off.

Even though I had _MADE_ my runner, it still took me a few seconds to remember how to accept the call. 

I was floored to see Blister’s face on the screen, “Is something wrong?”

Blister’s face had so many emotions running through it, that figuring out what was most prominent was difficult, making me silently curse my talent’s range, while he spoke, "I found your old hideout, but it looks like a warzone. There's nobody here, and there hasn't been anyone for a while."

Taking a deep breath, I slowly blew out air, "That's just wonderful. Could you look around and see if anyone knows anything? Satellites are notorious for knowing other people's business."

He nodded, "I'll see what I can find."

Once he hung up, Aki looked at me with pity, "Is your family supposed to be there?"

“I was living with some really good friends, who would bring everything I needed to me, so I didn’t have to go out to find it myself. They were basically family to me. Blister went to go check on them, and now I’m worried.”

She touched my shoulder, "Sorry. Do you know what happened?"

Putting my face shield down, I looked at her, “Something makes me think that this person named Rex Goodwin might have been involved.”

Aki finally figured out how to squeeze behind me, and we headed out to the arena.

With a passenger on the back of my runner, I drove much more carefully than I ever did on my own. There was no dodging between cars, or going slightly above the speed limit. In fact, I was going under the speed limit due to the hands that were wrapped tightly around my torso, threatening to cut off my air supply.

Finally we arrived at the arena, and thankfully didn’t have to show our invitations to get in this time. Instead we headed right to my garage and set up for the day while I explained some things to Aki.

“So, the reason I suspect that the Director is involved in the fact that my friends are missing is the fact that he has literally had a hand in everything that has happened to me since I arrived. The first thing that happened when I arrived is that I dueled Jack. That caused the power to go out, and we accidentally summoned what I think was the Crimson Dragon. After that, I got arrested...but Jack didn’t call them. We were raised together, and he would have never risked me getting arrested, even now.

“Then so many strange things happened when I was in the Facility, including a duel with the head of the Facility. Goodwin was there two days in a row, and just barely stopped me from getting put in Solitary Confinement. And then I was released, but I was tailed by about 20 officers in plain clothes. Blister was a friend of someone I met in the Facility, and helped me get off the radar. Somehow I was found again by Security, and that’s when the invitation was delivered to me. If I don’t duel in this tournament, my friends will be charged with all of the crimes that I was accused of to put me in the facility.”

Aki leaned back against the worktable, "Got it. So basically what you are telling me is to not trust anyone working with or for Goodwin."

“More or less. Anyway, it looks like it’s time for me to duel. Stay safe, okay?”

She nodded as I climbed on my runner, “You better win!”

Yet again, I was the first duelist out on the track. I did a couple rounds while waiting for Geiger to emerge.

My ears were not prepared for his runner by any means. It roared up beside me, taking away my hearing as it did so.

_ That thing is three times bigger than any runner I've ever seen! Goodwin is really pulling out all of the stops to see my mark again! _

I regretfully pulled to a stop, trying not to visibly cringe at the rumble of his runner as he pulled up next to me, "Only one of us can get what we were promised by Goodwin today, and it sucks for you but that person is going to be me."

Yet again, my eyes seemed to roll on their own as another opponent made me question their ego and sanity at the same time, "Keep telling yourself that."

3...2...1...GO!

Two runners launched off at the same time, and he edged ahead to take the first turn, "I summon Spell Reactor RE and then place two cards facedown."

**_Spell Reactor RE-1200_ **

My eyes scanned the cards in my hand, and I quickly plotted what moves to make, “The first move I am going to make is to place a facedown before summoning Speed Warrior in attack mode."

**_Speed Warrior-900_ **

One of his facedowns flipped up as he smiled at me,  “ I activate my trap Hidden Soldiers. If you summon a monster I can summon a monster as well. Say hello to Trap Reactor Y-Fi!"

**_Trap Reactor Y-Fi-800_ **

Sighing, I kept going, "My Warrior's attack points double on his first turn and I think I'll put them to good use. Speed Warrior, take out Spell Reactor RE!"

**_Speed Warrior-1800_ **

**_Life Points Geiger=3400_ **

For a second I let my guard down, until my hope was shattered by the revelation of Fake Explosion. Geiger’s smile grew wider than his biceps (an impressive feat) as he spoke, "You were hoping to stop my plan, weren't you? You failed at destroying my Spell Reactor RE, now I bring out Summon Reactor SK!"

**_Summon Reactor SK-2000_ **

"Next I use the spell Delta Reactor, which sends my three monsters to the graveyard to summon my Flying Fortress Skyfire."

**_Flying Fortress Skyfire-3000_ **

_ Great. Just absolutely great. Now I have to figure out how to get that flying monstrosity out of the freaking sky before my life points get absolutely decimated. This is a duel that I’m going to have to make an honest effort with. _

“In case you didn’t watch my last duel, with my Skyfire on the field, anytime you summon a monster or set a card, it gets destroyed and you take 800 points of damage.”

A wave of emotions swept through me from my deck, and I smiled.

_ Bring it on. My deck is going to take you down. _

He glared at my sudden smile, "Take out that Speed Warrior!"

**_Life Points Yusei=1900_ **

_ Whoever decided that your speed needed to drop when you lost speed counters was a horrible person. _

Justice spun nearly out of control as my speed counters dropped completely to 0. I wrestled with the controls to keep going forward, until I could regain full control.

When my eyes locked with his, there was a smirk on his face, "I place a facedown and end my turn."

Multiple strategies ran through my mind as I looked at my hand, but when I drew Shield Warrior, I knew exactly what I was going to do. I hid my smile as I started my turn, "I summon Shield Warrior in defense mode."

**_Shield Warrior-1600_ **

As Geiger laughed about my decision, I quietly put a card facedown and braced myself for the incoming attack as my Warrior was destroyed.

**_Life Points Yusei=1100_ **

Grateful that my emotions didn’t show on my face, I spoke again, “I end my turn with a facedown.”

I kept my face as blank as possible while he drew one of his cards and started yelling his plan, "I am going to take out your life points right now Yusei!"

The Fortress prepared an attack as I opened my mouth, “About that...I activate Wasteland Tornado, which destroys one trap card on the field. I chose my own Limiter Break, which brings a monster back from my graveyard in defense mode when it is destroyed. Come back out Speed Warrior!"

**_Speed Warrior-400_ **

Speed Warrior took the blow for me, saving my life points. It took a lot of self control to not show any emotions when Speed Warrior was sent back to the graveyard. A wave of guilt went through me, hoping that I hadn’t offended him by summoning him when I knew that he wouldn’t be on the field for long.

Geiger’s humor had died down, “I end my turn.”

All of my cards were ready for my plan, and I started to put it in action, "I summon my Massive Warrior in attack mode!"

**_Massive Warrior-600_ **

Once again, his Fortress’ effect blasted away Massive Warrior, taking some life points with him.

**_Life Points Yusei=300_ **

Without hesitating, I continued with my plan, "I activate the card Zero Reverse which brings back a monster that was destroyed by an effect this turn but lowers their points to zero."

**_Massive Warrior-0_ **

"Then I special summon Turbo Booster! And when Turbo Booster is on the field, I can release it in order to destroy your monster. Normally I would take damage considering this is a battle, but with Massive Warrior on the field I take no damage in battle."

Flying Fortress Skyfire shattered into pieces, and as it faded the weight on my shoulders faded away. It took nearly all of my life points to get rid of it, but in the end, I got rid of it.

Geiger looked mad beyond belief, and the fury on his face was amplified by a pair of giant spikes emerging from the wheels of his runner. One of his facedowns flipped up as he murmured, "I activate the trap Chariot Pile, which deals you 800 points of damage a turn, and the only way for you to negate this effect is to send a monster from your field to the graveyard."

I grimaced, "I send Massive Warrior to the graveyard."

Once my turn started, I looked over my hand again, "I summon Junk Synchron in attack mode."

**_Junk Synchron-1300_ **

"When I successfully summon him, I can bring back a monster from the graveyard that has a lower level than him in defense mode. So my Speed Warrior gets a third chance to get you."

**_Speed Warrior-400_ **

"Then I tune the two of them together to bring out Junk Warrior."

**_Junk Warrior-2300_ **

I flicked my hand out, "Junk Warrior, get him!"

Apparently he was just as dramatic as me, "I think not! Due to my trap card, if I take 800 of self inflicted damage, I can destroy your monster."

**_Life Points Geiger=2600_ **

_ That’s a clever method _ . I placed one card facedown, glad that my deck was still giving me what I needed.

He was clearly still in a terrible mood, "I summon Black Salvo in attack mode."

**_Black Salvo-100_ **

"Whenever I summon him, I can summon a level four monster from my graveyard, but it has to be a Dark Attribute monster. Trap Reactor Y-FI gets to come back out!"

**_Trap Reactor Y-FI-1800_ **

_ At least it wasn’t the Summon Reactor one. _

Geiger wasn’t done, "I tune them together to create Dark Strike Fighter!"

**_Dark Strike Fighter-2600_ **

"Striker, take out Yusei!"

Tilting my head, I spoke up, "I activate Synchro Spirits. By removing a Synchro monster from play, I can summon the monsters that I used to summon him."

**_Speed Warrior-400_ **

**_Junk Synchron-500_ **

Junk Synchron got in the way of the attack, and as Geiger was opening his mouth I explained something, "I let you destroy Shield Warrior a few turns back in case I had to do this. If I removed Shield Warrior from play, one of my monsters can avoid being destroyed."

He really was starting to glare at me, "Then I activate my Chariot's effect."

"I will send Speed Warrior to the graveyard."

Geiger didn’t stop, "Then I use the spell Ultimate Flare. If you negate my attack, I get to summon a Ultimate Flare Token. When I send this token to the graveyard, you take 200 points of damage, which gets multiplied by ten due to my Fighter's ability."

I grimaced in order to not roll my eyes, "I start my turn by summoning Tuning Supporter in attack mode."

**_Tuning Supporter-100_ **

"Next I tune the two of my monsters together to summon Armory Arm!"

**_Armory Arm-1800_ **

My sense of humor tried to intervene as the fact that I used such a cute little monster to create a giant metal hand made me want to giggle. But I got serious as I explained, "Whenever I use Tuning Supporter in a Synchro summon, I get to draw another card."

When my eyes landed on the card I drew, my relief was immense, "I use the spell Synchro Return! If I have more than four speed counters, I get to summon a Synchro monster that I removed from play earlier in the duel. I only have one monster that fits the bill, so come back Junk Warrior."

**_Junk Warrior-2300_ **

"My Armory Arm has a special ability, which allows it to attach to another Synchro monster and give it an extra 1000 attack points."

**_Junk Warrior-3300_ **

A ghost of a smile spread across my face, "It feels like a good time to take out your monster."

**_Life Points Geiger=1900_ **

My smile spread all over my face, "Armory's other effect comes into play now. If the monster it attached to successfully destroys a monster in battle, you take damage equal to the destroyed monsters points."

**_Life Points Geiger=0 Defeat!_ **


End file.
